Coping instinct

Isn't it amazing how adaptive we humans are? In the face of disasters, for example, we get jolted, yes - but only initially. We do not easily give up; we try to face up to the devastation. In due time, we are back on our feet, often in a victorious stance.

Indeed, we have natural abilities for coping with life's tragedies. But our coping instinct does not only go to work in times of calamities and distress. Even in our ordinary everyday situations, we are continuously coping.

The thought of coping is prevalent in my mind these past days. I've been called to take a job that, while along the line of my interests, is quite bewildering. Bewildering - not intimidating, since I have had the experience in equally high-pressure jobs before.

I'm talking about this new job at The Freeman. It's bewildering to me - at this time, at least - to think that I may be doing this every single day for a very long time. An added pressure is the fact that my predecessor in the position of Lifestyle Editor did quite an excellent job.

It bewilders me the more to be working in a "news" environment where your writers are always out in the world that you hardly see them in the office. They're not always around to immediately answer your questions regarding their submitted writings as you are hurrying up preparations for the next day's issue. You can send a text message or make a call, of course, but even that is sometimes too much of a trouble to do.

In film production, which was my former professional experience, you get equally busy - even busier at times. It's as head-breaking there. But, there, you don't break your head through eternity. After a few weeks, you get to breathe fresh air again. At a project's end, you get to rest and refresh your mind, before you look ahead to the next one.

The mindset is a little different here, too. Young writers tend to miss the fact that they are in the mainstream media, meaning that as much as possible "the writing must appeal to everybody." And "everybody" means anyone who cares to read what the writer writes, not only those in the writer's limited family and social circles.

I personally have my own idea of who everybody is. It's basically the guy whose mother tongue is not English, who has to buy the newspaper in order to have access to the writers' stories, who has little time to sit down and read, who is not so well informed of the current issues (otherwise he won't need to read the newspaper), and likely to be rather limited in his grasp of the latest turns of life and the world.

Writing in the newspaper is a multi-faceted craft. The story needs to be informative first and foremost; the story must not leave a question unanswered in the reader's mind, as much as possible. And especially for a lifestyle story, the writing shall also amuse, inspire and educate readers, among many other requirements.

It's a tall order, indeed. But there's the challenge, too. It's a privilege for lifestyle writers to have the formal venue where even their trivialities are made to matter. Readers may find a writer to be a dumb dog, but they arrive at such conclusion only after devoting precious time to examine the dumb dog's writing.

This is not a brief on journalism; I'm not an expert in the subject. No, this is a bewildered fellow talking to himself. I'm affirming these principles to myself so that I may not lose sight of the mission of this job.

I'm new on the job. But I'll cope with this big challenge in due time. Although, I know that in the newspaper industry "in due time" can mean "now."

There are many ideas in my head to put on the Lifestyle pages of The Freeman, to build on the good standards that I've been lucky enough to inherit. I'll cope - to think that this job is no magnitude 7.2 earthquake or super typhoon.