As times keep changing, don't forget what's important — especially community newspapers

So many transitions in life right now, so many changes.

Considering this column, it started out as a means of sharing news of the Youth Center and then started including ideas about parenting, using my own two sons (much to their chagrin) as examples, assuring fellow parents they were not alone. I’ve always considered that premise of “together-as-one,” “community” as the basis of my words here.

As my boys grew and the town did, too, I noticed my perceptions as well as the general vibe of life in Cambria was shifting. As a local since 1981, it is hard not to notice the gentrification of the town as a whole and the noticeable extinction of “Cambria Characters” either by physical death and damage or demise of affordable housing.

It’s bound to happen anywhere; I have always known that.

But I work hard at maintaining a sense of decency, tolerance, kindness, respect, introspection, connection, responsibility, creativity and mainly love in all I do and write. Hence, my ramblings on philosophy, latest essays or statistics from the world at large that I hope we will consider here in our little Cambri-lot.

My latest slogan is “Changing the world one smile at a time.” I know you hard-core pessimists are rolling your eyes, but I have certainly found it to be effective in my dealings with humans (actually even with dogs and cats!).

It is hard to keep a physical newspaper going in this day and age of digital media (or truly anytime in history). I’ve seen it in action when I was associated with the brief life of The Cambria Independent paper back in the late 1980s.

Why bother with paper? Because there are those of us who need something tactile in their hands, the rustle of paper in our ears, the smell and rough texture of newsprint, to fully embrace what we are reading. Archaic, I know, but there you are. It’s like a black-and-white movie to me; you have to really think things through that much more and see all the subtle differences in the shadows and light.

Although going totally digital is supposed to save the world, and it would throw a big monkey wrench in the lives of many hoarders I know, I’m willing to give up many other things in my life to mitigate that.

I have been honored to write for The Cambrian since the turn of the century. I want to be relevant, but mostly to you. I am truly always open for suggestions and critiques (what I will do with them always remains to be seen). I would never have had this opportunity in a big city.

Long live small-town newspapers!

This story was originally published May 8, 2018 at 11:31 AM with the headline "As times keep changing, don't forget what's important — especially community newspapers."