LY #100 Blogging vs Newsing

Today I had an experience that taught me one of the big differences between writing this "change of life" blog and writing news.  In trying to track down the reason for a school decision that annoyed me I found that I was talking with friends, people I like and respect, and getting answers that weren't answers that I'd accept from students.  When I question students, I want them to refer to facts and to be able to tell me their sources.  When I got information from friends I got rather amorphous "best possible sources" without any data.  And because they were friends, I didn't push it.

If I were a journalist, I'd be required and expected to push.  Same with sales.  Salespeople have to be able to push.  Now, I have a good friend who is an excellent salesperson who has a deep belief in the humanitarian activity being sold.  My friend tells me that sales is all about establishing relationship. 

Yet relationship is the very reason I'm not a salesperson or a newsman, as my father wanted me to be.  Well, until he found out I was going to be a "college" professor.  (Somehow he never was able to say "community college professor.)  Being a professor had more status, in his mind, than being a newsman.  Anyway, my big problem with any activity requiring pushiness and hustle is that I can take no for an answer.  Especially from my friends.  My foot doesn't get stuck in doors.  I'm not the squeaky wheel.   When it comes to addressing conflict, I must quote Charlie Brown:  “No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from!” 

Since this is my hundredth retirement blog post, I should have a little celebration.

Boston July 4 fireworks on a TV in a Boston flat