09-27-2009 GUSEWELLE COLUMN SOUNDS LIKE OBIT? Charles W. Gusewelle, 75, who is rumored to have written his first column for the Kansas City Star on a stone tablet, wrote a depressing column for the Sunday edition (9/27) that sounded more like an obituary. Any readers picking up the Sunday edition---the one that has just enough editorial copy to keep the ads from falling out---had to be depressed by Gusewelle's column that sounded more like his swan song although he denied that was its intent. He has been at the Star nearly 50 years as a reporter, editorial writer, editor and columnist. He also has penned nine books during his career and was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame in 2000. He writes just a Sunday column for the newspaper: In hindsight, the lost opportunities come into view C.W. GUSEWELLE COMMENTARY In no way do I mean this as a valediction, a summing up, for I fully intend to carry on a good deal longer. My intention here is only to reflect a bit on the experiences of a life that is now just past the three-quarters of a century mark. And a lucky life it has been, with my first good fortune coming at age 4, when I was adopted by a dear Missouri couple � the only parents I would ever know or care to know. More luck followed: fine teachers in public school, followed by two wonderful college professors who armed me for the challenges of a writing life. I�ve been privileged to pass my career as a journalist during what has been the golden period of newspapering in America. It has let me travel much of the world and witness events of historic importance. Link to rest of article.... It concluded on a depressing note: "There are friends � dearly loved, but also gone now � to whom I never spoke my affection in so many words. One doesn�t think to do that somehow. And then, in the rush of years, the chance is lost. "Mine has been a full and mostly joyful life, but some understandings one arrives at much too late. If I could make this run again, I know now that there are projects I would not put off and conversations I would not defer to another time."
09-27-2009 GLOOMY GUS Seems in line with a lotof stuff written by Gloomy Gus. I hope he lives long enough to learn that G-d is good and man's attempt to play G-d (abortion, embrionic stem cell manipulation, etc.) is bad.
09-28-2009 SOMETHING NICE? Sometimes the old saying "if you can't say something nice about a person, don't". Is this what America has become? Everything has to have a political slant. I enjoy Gus Gusewelle every Sunday. Keep it up Gus.
09-29-2009 WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN Gus wrote about one part of what it is to be human: to neglect to say and do what, in retrospect, you wish you had, especially in the face of doors that close forever. As usual, he wrote about it truly and eloquently. He's one of the reasons to keep reading The Star.
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