The Morning Guys

I love my morning guys.

For those of you who don't know, I work the early morning shift at Avalon Spa & Fitness Club. The morning shift is great because the phone doesn't really ring before 8 a.m. and what I spend most of my mornings doing is talking to Jim and Joe, two of our early morning fitness members. These guys are awesome.

Joe is so laidback, he is easily mistaken for an employee. He jokes that he could probably come in and open the place if I didn't show up. (He probably could because he is the first to let me know when something is out of place). Jim just likes to read the paper in his corner chair and drink coffee.

Today, Joe and I got to talking about journalism and how things have changed over the years. We talked about how people's attention spans have shortened (largely due to the internet). Everything in this world is faster, more concise and less personal than it was when he was my age.

Even since I was a child, people's expectations of the media have changed. If we want our news at all, we want it fast. We don't want to sit and read the newspaper, we want to google "insurgents" and find 28,000 articles from around the globe in 1.5 seconds.We want choices and we want them in easily digestible little morsels.

Joe talked about how the author, James Patterson has created a niche for himself by writing descriptively, but in short, simple sentences. His books, Joe argued, were long, but you could read them in just a couple of hours.I haven't read any of Patterson's books, but I told Joe that that style of writing was very journalistic.

What I find amusing about this is that many people, including Joe, would assume that this sort of writing is easier than the kind of writing you may do for an English paper or the typical novel. I think if done correctly, it can be much more challenging. To me, the ablity to transform complex thoughts and visions into clear, concise statements free of pomposity and $2.00 words is truly an art.

When something really resonates with me, when I recognize it as good writing, it's usually something that I feel I could have said, if only I had gotten the words in the right order. Good writng resonates with me if I feel like the words and thoughts have always been in my brain and I just needed someone to put them into the most logical order. (The "wow! I wish I had said that!" moments.)

The Morning Guys (as I call them) are the only people who can really get my brain going at that hour. We have had the most interesting conversations across that counter. We talk about art (both guys were once art school students and Jim is an accomplished artist); we talk about war (Joe wants me to do an article about Vietnam AWOL soldiers and where they are now); we talk about how the face of Europe has changed since we lived there; we talk about how people relate differently than they used to (also largely due to the internet).

Joe likes to challenge me because he can't stand lawyers (I used to be a paralegal) and he can't stand journalists (I am studying to be one). I challenge him right back with my reaons for being a writer and being a journalist. It's actually great for me to have to defend my work. It has inspired me to really think about what I want to do with my education.

Deep in my heart, I have always known that I wouldn't end up as a reporter for The Oregonian or the Statesmen Journal. I'd really rather explore a more personal avenue of journalism. But it was conversations like that which inspired me to believe that I can pursue whatever avenue I see fit.

Who'd have thought that 6 a.m. conversations could be so thought-provoking?