Wednesday, I wrote a quick post about classified ads. There were a couple of good comments, one introduced me to the world of craigslist.org through a neat little tool called craigzoom.com, which made craigslist approachable for me.
Then there was a comment reminding me of drinking coffee and reading the morning paper.
Nearly three years ago, Monica and I were at Fort Campbell, KY, and I ordered a subscription to The New York Times Sunday Edition which was available in that area. The girls (Will wasn’t born yet) still enjoyed an afternoon nap, and I enjoyed the Sunday Paper after we spend the morning at church.
One of the most special times was reading the obituaries. Now that sounds morbid, but it was incredibly interesting to read about the lives of seemingly normal everyday people who lived wonderfully adventurous lives. The staff at The New Times would write a piece so detailed that by the end, I would often tell Monica how wonderful the person who had recently died was.
I was always amazed at how nice the articles turned out to be and they were actually worth reading. I amazed myself that I actually took the time to look for those each week. The obituaries I have been accustomed to had always been as detailed as a classified ad and as personal as the legal records. This opened my eyes to a new form of writing. Much like good sports writing they could just give statistics or they could tell the story. The New York Times chose to tell the story.
It was nice to sit and read through the many different lives of people who died during the course of a week–the struggles that they endured, the triumphs that they enjoyed, and the families they left behind.