A Community in Change

Each month over six million copies of National Geographic are circulated worldwide. I've loved and read this magazine for years. I do not save them! Because of the beautiful production quality, many people have a hard time throwing the magazine away.

In the March issue, I was fascinated to read this well-crafted article from T.D. Allman titled, "The Theme-Parking, Megachurching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America, How Walt Disney Changed Everything." The article is online and gives a picture of how the Orlando community has changed with the arrival of Disneyworld. It shows the fluid nature of our culture and how it is constantly evolving.

The world of publishing is also constantly evolving and changing. It is a challenge (and somewhat impossible) for any of us to keep up. The key from my perspective is to continue growing in your communication ability and try different types of writing to see where you find your niche. Then when you find the type of writing that you do best, to write it with excellence and market it with excellence.

Of necessity, over the next few days these entries about the writing life are going to be more limited. I'm trying to complete a number of deadlines before I travel on Thursday to the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. It's one of the oldest and longest running in the United States. I know my schedule says that it starts on Friday--and it does. Like many of these conferences, they want the staff to arrive the day before. It will be a busy time. I have not been to this conference for several years. In many ways, it's like an old fashion family reunion and some place I've been going since the mid 1980s. Yes, there will be many people at the conference who are attending for the first time. Also there are a number of writers who plan to attend this conference if they can't attend anything else in the whole year. From early in the day until late at night, this conference is full of activity.

If the weather is good, I often will make time to slip away from the conference for exercise and to visit one of my favorite spots with redwoods on the planet. There is something about walking or running through a bunch of redwoods that helps you have a proper perspective on where you fit into the universe and the sea of change around you.