“There is comfort in routine.”
~ John Steinbeck
By NIKI TURNER
This week marks my seventh consecutive year as co-publisher and editor of the Rio Blanco Herald Times, and that makes this my 364th weekly column. It seems like a lot when I look at the numbers, but it’s just words. Some have been written in the heat of anger over injustice, others have been written in the harrowing fog of grief, and many have been written as a one-way conversation like a letter in a bottle, set adrift on the current.
A lot has happened in that seven years, personally and professionally. I’ve lost an adult son, five years ago next month. Writing my child’s obituary was never on my bucket list. My marriage of three decades exploded and came to a painful end two and half years ago. None of the events that transpired to bring about a divorce were on my bucket list, either. On a positive note, I’ve gained three grandchildren, and done a whole lot of things I never thought I’d be able to do alone.
Professionally, the newspaper has won multiple awards, both statewide and nationally. I’ve been on the board of the Colorado Press Association and served as president of that board this year, following in the footsteps of the Meeker Herald’s founder, James Lyttle. We bought a building — returning the community newspaper to its longtime home on the corner of 4th and Main.
All together we’ve come through more “unprecedented” events than I think any of us thought plausible for a single lifetime. There’s been drama, chaos, conflict, upheaval, distress, confusion, fear, threat, grief, rejoicing, hope, mercy, compassion … the entire gamut of human emotion and experience.
And through all of that turmoil — personal and professional — the newspaper has remained.
My first column was titled “What is the purpose of a local newspaper?” My perspective of the local newspaper as a living textbook of history hasn’t changed, neither has the idea that stories need to be told and shared in a place that isn’t subject to the frailty of human memory or the capricious whims of social media, or the essential importance of keeping our readers informed about the decisions and actions of our local elected and appointed representatives.
I now add to that list the inherent values of stability, tradition and consistency that come with a weekly publication schedule. That responsibility — to continue to “put the paper to bed” every single week no matter what — and the routine of deadlines and meetings and systems have provided a bizarre kind of comfort for me on this side of the desk, and I hope, for all of you as well.
