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Show Column keeps a promise to self the etlitor's column ofasplitpersonalirf often inl'maVaV'l feelings through J anoddco.PS understand, one ' j Never m.nd "? of p ; taking WSSy,p forced to HuJindtW ,l nolice- SuSiy-.' isone-sbus.nes5- i;e Ifs keeping s Ptant3 and that's as imp" 1 458, gets. II is late. I'nbeliovably kilo. Nevertheless. I am writing a column. Against all good sense, against all reason, here I sit writing a column, when I should be putting together the Ironl page you just got through looking at That fact is. I should have skipped Ibis exercise in sell indulgence this week No one would notice. I thoiighi No one would real I v care. I could go in an old newspaper and pick out a column which already ran. anil put it in the newspaper, and no one would notice except myself. Dear Alihy did il. Or what it Ann Landers. Whoever il was. they make a lot more money al il than ! do, and they gel away with il . Whvcau'l -' Simply because I won't let myself -even when I should Kven when il would mean gellurg home at a That's going some. The fact is. I have come to view filling this space as a sort of a personal challenge. It's the hardest thing I do every week. It's also the most fun. And it's rewarding. For example, last week I wrote about politicians, and used my own father as an example of the smalltown small-town politician who ran and lost. The next day I got a telephone call from a woman I have never met. I don't remember her name, but she is from my father's home town and went to school with him - even dated him. He wrote her some letters while he was a missionary many years ago, letters she came across not long ago while looking for something else. She offered to send them to me. What better gift could a son ask for? As a writer, I find I am possessed By MARC HADDOCK decent hour so I could have a warm meal and watch television mindlessly min-dlessly for a while before hitting the sack. |