‘My mind is racing As it always will’

My mind is racing
As it always will
My hand is tired my heart aches
I’m half a world away here

- R.E.M. Half a World Away

I feel like writing poetry, not a blog post, but I haven’t written poems since college, when every little drama meant the end of the world.

I try to keep perspective now, but it actually isn’t really any easier than when I was younger and had only lived half the life I have lived.   I think at any age or stage of life, the things that seem most important are most important, to you anyway.

I may hear someone complain about an increase in their rent.  That is the most important thing.  Someone else moans about an ex-lover’s impending nuptials.  That is the most important thing.  I complain about money, seems to be the most important thing.  You are ill from your chemo, the most important thing.

When I talk about perspective, I almost want to mock myself.  How can you keep perspective, really… You have only lived your own life;  no one else’s. So the obstacles others face are completely abstract to you.  And in our minds it isn’t any easier for us, for them, for you.  When you were 14 and the kids picked on you, was that any easier than being laid off from a job at 32?

This blog post changed direction somewhere.  Oh well.

I want to be empathetic, but tend to just end up pathetic.  I want to be selfless and end up being self-serving.  I want to be so much more, but, so easily overwhelmed, end up being barely enough.  I keep thinking it will change, but it doesn’t.  And the problem is there.  I think it will change.  I think some force will intervene and change the course.  But you know that isn’t true.  The course changes when I turn the steering wheel.  I just need to get past the learner’s permit stage, right?

I’m looking for an interruption,
Can you believe?
Some medicine for my headache
Hooray hooray hip hip hooray
I’m pitching for a new direction
Pinch me when I wake
Don’t tell me my dreams are fake
You leave me to lay, you touch me deep,
I don’t sleep, I dream
I’ll settle for a cup of coffee, but you know what I really need

-R.E.M.  I Don’t Sleep, I Dream

Filed under: status

Where do we go from here?

“Where do we go from here?  The battle’s done, And we kinda won.  So we sound our victory cheer.  Where do we go from here?”
From Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Musical

A couple weeks ago we had a huge Content Summit at Gannett.  We have been planning it for months and now it is over, but I realize the work is just beginning…

Gannett is a media company and over the past two weeks, our stock has been rising, which is kinda nice.  There are a few reasons for this, but I joke that the street got wind of our new content strategy and it is showing its confidence in our plan.

My current job focuses on social media, but I have always been passionate about improving and reinforcing any company I have worked for.  I step outside of the box sometimes, and sometimes I even step too far, but I want my company to succeed.  It isn’t really about me, right?  It’s about trying to recognize ways to move Gannett into the future successfully.  This may be via innovation, may be via audience participation, may be via technological changes… never ignoring the basis of what we do best- journalism.

So today I am livestreaming sessions from Izeafest and from the Online News Association conference.  And in a couple weeks I will be attending the 2009 Blogworld and New Media Expo (very excited- if you will be there, let me know).  But my point is I am always trying to learn.  I always seek out the words of the influencers and ‘rockstars’ in the space I occupy or hope to occupy.

I don’t know what the future holds for Gannett, but I am confident we will be able to bring it through the current wave of ‘newspapers are dying’ and get to the next place where people understand and appreciate the importance of quality investigative journalism.  I want to see Gannett be known for being an innovative media company.  I will help get it there.

Filed under: Business , blogworld, Gannett, IZEAfest, ONA