Graphic critics have told us — or at least have commented on our Instagram — that we need to publish more good news. I completely agree. It’s not easy to find good news nowadays, but the Graphic News team has always been up for a challenge.
In pitching this Good News column, my half-baked idea was for my team to find news outside of ourselves — looking for stories of cute puppies or reunited families or other obvious expressions of goodness from our community and our world. But as a seasoned reporter for the Graphic, I remembered an older tradition of the A2 column and figured it was time for an A2 facelift, COVID-19-style.
Without further ado, welcome to the first piece of the Good News column, designed to share a piece of light, hope and joy from the personal lives of the News team.
Feb. 8 marked the first week of school and in my first class of the semester, my professor asked us to open with “an incident of hope” from 2021 thus far. The prompt struck me, both in the word choice of incident and also in the idea of hope in the past two months.
My 2021, like many others I assume, has been rocky to say the least.
Not that the past two months have been without good things. I’ve been skiing, I spent time at home with my dog, I’ve cared for my succulents, I’ve watched sunsets from my balcony, I’ve spent time in worship, and I’ve made new friends. But hope is different than goodness.
Hope as a noun is, “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best,” according to Dictionary.com. Finding hope is digging deeper than what is joyful or pleasing or happy; it’s identifying light on the horizon and saying, “look, over there — that’s what I’m holding on to.”
I’ve seen hope in the Graphic — in the dozens of new staffers joining the ranks to tell stories that matter to the Pepperdine community.
I’ve seen hope in the COVID-19 vaccine — in talking to my grandma about her experience being vaccinated and watching my friends in the medical field administer the vaccine.
I’ve seen hope in my community — in the ways my friends are willing to pick me up when I fall, in the charity and generosity my peers continue to demonstrate, and in the grace we choose to demonstrate despite the chaos of the world.
Hope is rare, for sure, just like good news. But I hope this column provides a glimmer of both in the coming weeks.
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Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic
Contact Ashley Mowreader via Twitter: @amowreader or by email ashley.mowreader@pepperdine.edu
