Cnn's john sutter welcomes a new year and a new decade on january 1. Sutter: we can choose to enter it with fear and trepidation or hope and anticipation. People profiled in this issue have dealt with change and unexpected opportunities.
Cnn's john sutter welcomes a new year and a new decade on january 1. Sutter: we can choose to enter it with fear and trepidation or hope and anticipation. People profiled in this issue have dealt with change and unexpected opportunities.
Cnn's john sutter welcomes a new year and a new decade on january 1. Sutter: we can choose to enter it with fear and trepidation or hope and anticipation. People profiled in this issue have dealt with change and unexpected opportunities.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS WE WELCOMED A NEW YEAR AND A NEW DECADE ON JAN. 1.
W BASED ON THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY, WE
MIGHT NOT FEEL MUCH LIKE CELEBRATING. WHAT IF 2010 IS JUST AS BAD, OR, GOD FORBID, EVEN WORSE, THAN 2009? Whether we like it or not, we have started a new year, and we can choose to enter it with fear and trepidation or hope and anticipation. I choose the latter. While writing and editing stories for this issue, I was struck by how often the people profiled had dealt with change and unexpected opportunities in their lives and emerged the better for it. Billie Buckley had never aspired to be a writer, but when a member of her church, who just happened to be the Hattiesburg American’s religion editor, needed a guest col- umn, she soon found herself writing weekly, which she did for 10 years or so. She’s cut back to once a month now, but she has just self-published a collection of some of her favorite columns. She titled her book “Put Some Good On My Life,” and that’s what she tries to do for others. Paul Ott shares that philosophy. The singer/songwriter and radio/TV host found out he had breast cancer but instead of curling up in a ball, he beat his disease and now is “on fire” to share his faith with others, and to educate men and women about breast cancer. Sadako Lewis moved to Mississippi with her husband, who was in the Air Force, then found herself far from her family in Sadako Lewis Japan when they divorced. She went to college and began a career as an artist, something she had never had the courage to pursue until she was more or less forced to. Milo and Mickey Asche lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, and a knee injury disabled Mickey, but it opened the door to careers for them as artists. Then there’s Bruce Brady, who changed careers not once, but twice. He had a successful law practice in Brookhaven when he gave that up to take a job as a field editor for a national maga- zine. Then, on a whim, he sat down with a chunk of clay and some primitive tools and sculpted a big horn sheep. Within a few years, he was creating limited edition bronze pieces that have won awards and are in some prestigious collections, including the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The point is, we don’t know what the future holds, and with a recession, two wars and many natural disasters plaguing us, it can be easy to give in to fear. But the examples these people set show us that life is an adventure, and if we are open to opportunities, they will find us. It may be a little late, but Happy New Year, and may 2010 be your best year yet.