My New Monthly

By Kimberly Mayer

A writer’s life is like this. She grows a set of antennae as she goes into the world, looking for material. Lately I’m wearing two sets of antennas, one for this blog and one for a new column in the Journal of the San Juan Islands. I don’t know what the difference will be in terms of what I will see and what I will write for either outlet. I do know, however, that while blogging can be irregular, I will have to be regular with the monthly newspaper column. 

I’ve titled it “The Nature of Things,” to keep it broad. My new hero in life is Eleanor Roosevelt. A woman for all seasons, all reasons, and now this: her dedication as a columnist. For nearly thirty years, six days a week, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote “My Day,” a nationally syndicated column reaching millions. How did I not know this when I was young and reading only comics and “Dear Abby” in the newspaper? Why was I not guided to “My Day”? I feel I am having to make up for lost time as a child. 

More liberal than her husband, Eleanor considered herself a journalist first. She wrote past FDR’s presidency, through the Truman administration, the Eisenhower administration, and into the Kennedy administration. Indeed Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t put down her pen until two months before her own death in 1962. Her column covered everything, from everyday occurrences in the White House to nature and conservation, art, labor reform, civil rights, women’s rights, anti-Semitism, and the threat of fascism.

Today we have all that plus a planet in peril. My column, “The Nature of Things” appeared for the first time in The Journal of the San Juan Islands this month, and what did I cover but runner beans, rolled hay, and Breton striped sweaters. It was a start.

See my article here.