Each journalist has a short list of stories they’ve written that either really resonated with them or that they felt they did a pretty good job on.
Some people may not fully grasp this, but all of this is work. What you see in the newspaper each week, I mean. Yes, it’s what I enjoy doing, but there are plenty of stories I’ve worked on that I did not enjoy writing at all.
But every once in a while the perfect story comes around. Different journalists have different ideas of what their perfect story is, but for me it’s anything that allows me to take a step back and fall in love with the process again. Even more importantly, it allows me to discover, or sometimes rediscover, parts of me that I hadn’t been paying enough attention to.
Last Thursday, before I had to go over to Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign event in Logan that you’ve also read about in this week’s editions of the Times-News and Reporter, I took time out for another story in this week’s papers – that of the cross put up by Mark K. Smith a few years back.
I initially parked at the MVCSD office and walked up the hill to the base of the trail that winds up the bluff. I got a short way up the trail before I decided to abort the mission, as it wasn’t very friendly for a guy who has already had three knee surgeries at just 23 years of age.
So, I got back in my car, went up 3rd Street and parked by the old water reservoir. After searching the tree line for a moment, I found the trail, ducked under a few branches and was on my merry way.
After some twists and turns that weren’t too difficult to navigate, I found myself in the homestretch. I had my camera on me, so I got some shots of the cross from different angles (those are also in today’s paper) before I decided to spend some quiet time ahead of the next event I had to go cover.
Being up on the bluff with the cross reminded me of some biblical events that also take place at higher altitudes, namely Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and Peter, James and John witnessing the transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
How fitting that the “perfect story,” which provided me with some much-needed quiet time during this hectic season, reconnected me with the most perfect story of all – that of God’s revelation to man, culminating in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In just a few days it will be Christmas. We will celebrate, as St. John puts it, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We do this knowing that the same babe wrapped in swaddling cloths would one day take up the cross for the salvation of all.
If you haven’t yet made a trip to the cross overlooking Missouri Valley, I highly recommend it.
Christ is born. Glorify Him!
