Human spirit always rises above mayhem and tragedy
Having come of age in a newspaper newsroom in my late teens, I learned early on what turned out to be a somewhat dubious guiding philosophy throughout my life — the reality of random bad things that can and will happen to all of us.
Random bad things are the unexpected events that just happen, delivering varying degrees of shock, horror and heartbreak. This, as I was then learning, is the very definition of news.
I remember the first time I became aware of this idea that random bad things — news — could happen to anyone and that life could turn on a dime. As the “copy girl” at the Brantford Expositor, I had arrived for my early-morning start when the senior editor asked me about a girl I had gone to high school with. He told me she had died in a car crash and he needed me to go home and get my yearbook, so they would have her photo to publish. The lesson for this future journalist: The news came first, before my shock and sadness.
In my years of reporting following that, I had so many opportunities to understand the reality of random bad things and the need for journalists to report on them and set aside personal feelings. How many times did I have to knock on the door of the family of a murder victim, or yet another car crash victim and talk to them about the loved one who had had plans for that same day? How many times was I part of a newsroom mobilized to report on the worst of the random bad things that shocked the world?
In inculcating this reality of random bad things, I became an anxious worrier, with a go-to mental and emotional set point of imagining the worst that could happen in any situation. My husband and children understand I am a worrier writ large and get that it has much to do with my being a journalist. Once, talking to a therapist, I told her I was not a pessimist, but a realist. Just look around us at all these random bad things that happen, I told her.
Journalists are on the front lines of bearing witness to the random bad things life brings. We are society’s realists. Truth be told, I learned to cope with this reality by welcoming those random bad things in my own life that were manageable, believing we all must bear our share of random bad things throughout our lives. A fender bender, a visit to the emergency ward for a broken limb, the beloved’s minor heart attack, a financial setback, a job loss. In the grand scheme of random very bad things I witnessed as a journalist, just small-scale random bad things. Blessings, really.
And now, with this great big global random bad thing called COVID-19 affecting every one of us, like all of you, I am anxious, indeed frightened, when I hear that the worst may be yet to come. Aren’t we all?
But here, I draw on the other important learning of more than 40 years in journalism and bearing witness to the chaos of the world: A new day of new news always dawns.
This, I also know: This too shall pass. Life will go on. Somehow, inexplicably, it always does even in the face of the worst, most painful and heartbreaking of the random bad things that befall people. I have witnessed that reality repeatedly, too. The human spirit, faced with mayhem and great tragedy, somehow seems to always teach us greater lessons about survival in the face of unimaginable random bad things.
In coming weeks, let us remember, we are in this random bad thing together. Journalists, who are on the front lines, bearing witness and working full out to keep you informed around the clock in circumstances we could never have envisioned even last month. And, you, our readers, who need crucial, trustworthy information about this fast-moving global pandemic.
Real news matters to keeping all of us safe and informed. Subscribing to a news source you trust matters, too. I guarantee you, every journalist in the Star and throughout Torstar’s news organizations is committed to giving you the real news you require to make informed decisions for you and your loved ones. I expect we will make a few mistakes. Again, I guarantee we will correct.
As we all get to the other side of this news, this new random bad thing — and we will — I hope we can all remember the best of the human spirit of survival: kindness, generosity, empathy, understanding, strength.