EDITOR’S NOTES

SINCERELY SOUTHERN

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
WE WELCOMED A NEW YEAR AND A NEW DECADE ON JAN. 1.

W BASED ON THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY, WE

MIGHT NOT FEEL MUCH LIKE CELEBRATING. WHAT IF 2010 IS
JUST AS BAD, OR, GOD FORBID, EVEN WORSE, THAN 2009?
Whether we like it or not, we have started a new year, and we can choose to enter it with fear
and trepidation or hope and anticipation. I choose the latter.
While writing and editing stories for this issue, I was struck by how often the people profiled
had dealt with change and unexpected opportunities in their
lives and emerged the better for it.
Billie Buckley had never aspired to be a writer, but when a
member of her church, who just happened to be the
Hattiesburg American’s religion editor, needed a guest col-
umn, she soon found herself writing weekly, which she did
for 10 years or so. She’s cut back to once a month now, but
she has just self-published a collection of some of her favorite
columns. She titled her book “Put Some Good On My Life,”
and that’s what she tries to do for others.
Paul Ott shares that philosophy. The singer/songwriter and
radio/TV host found out he had breast cancer but instead of
curling up in a ball, he beat his disease and now is “on fire”
to share his faith with others, and to educate men and women
about breast cancer.
Sadako Lewis moved to Mississippi with her husband, who
was in the Air Force, then found herself far from her family in
Sadako Lewis
Japan when they divorced. She went to college and began a
career as an artist, something she had never had the courage
to pursue until she was more or less forced to.
Milo and Mickey Asche lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, and a knee injury disabled
Mickey, but it opened the door to careers for them as artists.
Then there’s Bruce Brady, who changed careers not once, but twice. He had a successful law
practice in Brookhaven when he gave that up to take a job as a field editor for a national maga-
zine. Then, on a whim, he sat down with a chunk of clay and some primitive tools and sculpted
a big horn sheep. Within a few years, he was creating limited edition bronze pieces that have
won awards and are in some prestigious collections, including the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library.
The point is, we don’t know what the future holds, and with a recession, two wars and many
natural disasters plaguing us, it can be easy to give in to fear. But the examples these people set
show us that life is an adventure, and if we are open to opportunities, they will find us.
It may be a little late, but Happy New Year, and may 2010 be your best year yet.

Robyn Jackson

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