‘To forget about life for awhile’

This past week has been one of a personal high and a very sad professional low, and I don’t think there is any better time to remind all of us to find that thing that lets us forget about life for awhile.

The high came about a week ago when I was part of a group of 33 technologists and journalists who gathered in a few small rooms in Chicago and did some cool stuff at BarCamp NewsInnovation Chicago. I’ve neglected to write about most of it due to some events that have occurred where I work.

And that brings me to the low point. On Tuesday, 14 fellow newsroom colleagues at The Gazette lost their jobs. Others in the company did to as the company restructures to be better aligned with the current economy.

I was driving in my car today doing what I do to forget about life. I was smoking a cigar and listening to some tunes when Billy Joel’s “Piano man” came on. It reminded me of a story I wrote when I worked that The Tribune in Ames, Iowa that published on April 2, 2003. You will recall the U.S began the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The words, I felt, were prefect for the time, and they might fit well here too. At least they did for me.

Six words uttered by Elton John and Billy Joel Tuesday night summed up what many in the capacity crowd at Hilton Coliseum were feeling.

“To forget about life for a while.”

That crowd wasn’t only from Mid-Iowa. Music fans from Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas were all a part of the 14,000-plus crowd who sang part of “Piano Man” as Joel and John listened.

“Sing us a song, you’re the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. For we’re all in the mood for a melody, and you’ve got us feeling all right.”

That song and those words ended an enthusiastic, high-energy three-and-a-half hour performance that had fat old men and college coeds dancing in the aisles side-by-side.

“It was unbelievable,” said Jeanne Skutnick of Omaha, Neb. “There are not words that can describe that ending. We all said what we were feeling. I cannot believe how great that was.”

Doing what many journalist do, a group of us from the newsroom went out and had a beer to toast those that we would no longer be working with. We understand the nature of the business, but it still sucks. There’s no other way to put it.

So take a few moments to smoke your cigar or whatever it is you do. But come back tomorrow. There’s still great journalism to be done and communities to inform and engage that depend on us.

Tags: billy joel, elton john, Hilton Coliseum, journalism, layoffs, newsroom, Omaha, piano man

Author: Jason Kristufek