Is there a place that you frequent often to get (written) information about the world around you ?  Are you confident that the writing is honest, ethical, fact-checked and not to mention well-written?  So much has happened over the last 5-10 years in the world of journalism and reporting, what with magazines and papers trimming staff or shutting down much less the onslaught of millions of wanna-be-reporters blogging their opinions, that I’m not as confident about the written word as I used to be.

And, in my humble opinion, I come from a background of having worked at one of the most well-written and fact-checked national magazines, TexasMonthly (TM).  Some of the U.S.’ best journalists either cut their teeth at the magazine or were regular contributors such as Lawrence Wright, Stephen Harrigan,  Joe Nick Patoski, Mimi Schwartz and Skip Hollandsworth to name a few.  For every piece written in TM, its readers could be confident that extensive and exhaustive research was done.  Facts were checked and re-checked.  And each of these writers have a gift of pulling the reader deep into their story, making us grab on to the edges of the pages and hang on for the ride all the way to the satisfying end.  Many of the writers who I knew from my time at TexasMonthly continue to write and also enjoy multi-faceted brilliant careers in screenwriting, broadcasting, speaking and teaching.

My hope is that there is a crop of writers out there who have the talent, wisdom, tenacity and perseverance to investigate and report back to us in an engaging and well-written manner like these great writers who have gone before them.  The world needs writers who can sift through the myriad of noise out there and focus in on what is happening so that they can help us to understand our world better.

Thought for the Day:  Where do you go to get information about what is happening in the world? Do you believe and trust it? Why?

Helpful Hints for Being Human: Recognizing the greatness around us through the written word can help us find the greatness within ourselves.