I’d received a liberal education at the first paper, but I learned even more at the second. A
much smaller publication, with a tiny staff, it required hands-on preparation each week. I
learned about layout and paste-up.
I was also the newspaper’s photographer (I had to learn fast how to handle a camera, and
even how to work my way around a darkroom), and its ace (actually, only) reporter. I also
learned a lot about operating under pressure, with all of a newspaper publication’s
unforgiving time deadlines.
I’m hoping that what you “get” here is that I discovered talents I didn’t even know I had. I also
discovered that I could call forth these talents by simply pressing myself to do so. This was a
major revelation for me. This was a major message. A memo from The
Top. God was telling me something that I have used countless times since: life begins at the
end of your comfort zone.
I have said this before and I will say it again. Don’t be afraid in your life to s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Reach
higher than your grasp. It may seem scary at first, but you’ll come to enjoy it.
As for me, I loved it. I thrived on it. I couldn’t get enough of it. And Jay knew that about me.
He saw that in me, and he drew it out of me. In those younger years I was often beset by
insecurity, but Jay knew what I was made of. He gave me back to myself. All Masters do that,
and by so doing they give the greatest blessing.
I blossomed under Jay’s tutelage, under his firm but gentle guidance, and his “nothing is
impossible” brand of leadership. In fact, I soon adopted it, made it my own. It matched up well
with what my father had taught me: You can do anything you set your mind to. Or, as my
mother would put it, Where there’s a will, there’s a way
As I said, I really was shocked when Jay died so young. I didn’t think that a person that good
should have to leave so soon.
His work was done.
I know. I know that now. But I didn’t understand that then. I was mystified, hurt. If this is the
reward for the really nice ones, what’s the point? That’s where I was in my head. I wasn’t
even sure in those days whether there was such a thing as a hereafter. I didn’t know if there
was life after death. Jay’s death shook me. It made me look hard at this question.
Did you find an answer?
Yes. I received my answer the day of Jay’s funeral.
How did that happen?
Jay gave me the answer himself. In two words. In the graveyard. In his own voice.
(10)