Sharing information
If you are relaxing for the evening and you are interrupted by a ringing phone, do you answer it?
If you have caller ID you’ll see it’s a phone number you don’t recognize and you’ll ignore it.My husband would do that. I can’t.I am one of those curious people who pick up the phone. I cannot resist.If it’s a survey, I take it.They might tell me it’s just a few questions, and I’ll still be giving my opinion 20 minutes later.All the while, my husband will be in the background saying, “Just hang up. Just hang up.”I do enjoy telling people what I think, but it’s the thought of giving people information that snags me. It can be anything from views on abortion to whether or not I am planning to buy a new car.I am an information junkie and I realize the only way to gather information is if people like me take time to answer questions.A few weeks ago, I got called up to the Majors.The Nielsen ratings company called and asked me to keep track of what we watch on TV. You know all those statistics about how many people watched Sunday night football? Or the finals of “The Voice”?They were asking me to participate. They asked how many people in the household.Two, I told them.They asked how many televisions we had in the house.Uh, four, I sheepishly admitted.Yes, we each have two. We have one in the living room and one in the bedroom.Ronnie usually watches sports from his big old recliner in the living room. I have a few regular shows, but mostly I watch the Hallmark Channel in the bedroom.When I get the rare chance to sew, I watch TV in my sewing room while I am creating.One TV downstairs is turned on when Ronnie comes in from the garage. It’s an older model and has just one channel: Comcast Sports.The company sent us four books to complete. And they sent a dollar.I would have paid them for the opportunity.Unfortunately, we were predictable and maybe boring.It’s Christmas movie time on Hallmark. There are two Hallmark channels. I watch one or the other. Sometimes I watch a movie I’ve already seen. In the living room, there’s always some kind of game. If there’s not a game, he watches sports news . . . over and over again.He wasn’t interested in logging his entries so I had to keep wandering out to figure out which one he was watching.The week ended on Thanksgiving. I had about 30 minutes to watch the Macy’s parade. Now there was something different.When I mailed back the booklets Friday I had a sense of failure. I felt like I didn’t contribute anything meaningful because we are creatures of habit.I am thankful that the people we interview for the newspaper don’t feel that way.One of the things I love most about my profession is that people let us into their homes and their lives.We get a rare glimpse of what it’s like to be them and we can share it with our readers.We learn of their sorrows and triumphs. Their successes and struggles. Their illnesses and their healing.We talk to them in their joy of adding a family member and in their sadness when they lose a member of their family.We love when they tell us their opinion with letters to the editor.Our readers help to shape our coverage and we don’t even have to pay them a dollar.What we owe them is our utmost respect for sharing.Do you have a story to share? We’d love to hear from you. Call 610-377-2051 or email