In a recent issue U.S. 1 offered a gesture of thanks to friends who help you stay connected. So now it is my turn to thank you for the insights you have shared over the years, reminding me of principles I have always held but at times have forgotten. I suspect U.S. 1’s guiding principles, at least in part, must be the reason U.S. 1 is 25 years old “and still standing.” I’d like to share some quotations from U.S. 1 that have helped me reconnect:
“Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it.” And “So with this issue we at U.S. 1 are sending our … calendar to your office. Our hope is that every one of the 365 days gets crossed off slowly, and only after you have made the most of it.”
Thanks for reminding me to live in the present.
“We’re not cynical because we’re jerks, we’re cynical because we’re idealists,” Scott Morgan wrote recently. And “Whenever you think there’s nothing more important than your business, think again. Think of your physical health.” And “think of your mental health.”
Thanks for reminding me to know myself.
“What you’re doing is important.” As Richard K. Rein noted in a column, “When my college roommate Gary Diedrichs and I were both struggling freelancers, he kept this reminder above his typewriter.”
Thanks for the reminder to believe in myself.
“At his ink-stained, no-nonsense hands, generations of would-be journalists were educated in ‘craft, fidelity, dedication, perseverance, [and] excellence,’ qualities that not even an [umpteen]-thousand-dollar education can buy.”
Thanks for reminding me to give my best.
“Celebrate your fortunes because they’re fleeting, but be good to the world that granted them to you.”
Thanks for reminding me to share my fortunes.
“Remember that readers pay for it with their time.” And, commenting on Don Imus’s inflammatory remarks about the Rutgers women basketball team, “Talk radio and television has fallen to the loudest common denominator. An opinion, no matter how shallow, wins out over any moment of reflection. …. But maybe they realized it was time to re-draw the line: rants with a little reasoning; comedy with some context.”
Thanks for reminding me to root my words in substance.
Live in the present. Know yourself. Believe in yourself. Give your best. Share your fortunes. Root your words in substance . . . Hmmm, not a bad set of resolutions for starting my new year.
Lynn Robbins
PS: Will you save a calendar for me?
Editor’s note: Robbins contributed to U.S. 1 as a freelancer in the 1980s and 1990s. Yes, a calendar is saved.
