From Paul Dail:
I often tell people I have a hard time following the news because as a horror writer, I don’t need to see reality confirm what my imagination already creates. Truth isn’t just stranger than fiction; sometimes it’s downright worse. This is why I like writing human interest stories. Even though they don’t generate the pageviews of the stories that “bleed and lead,” they represent the better and brighter side. We need more reminders of that.
Below are excerpts from a few of Paul’s human interest/feature pieces, with links to the full articles.
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Veteran Takes a 15,000-mile ‘Ride for Light’ (Rider magazine)
In his intro video on the Ride for Light Facebook page, former Army paratrooper Perry Steed says there has been something he has been unable to do for the last 10 years – an obstacle he hasn’t overcome.
“That obstacle has been going to collect one of my very best friend’s ashes,” he says with solemnity in his voice.
On April 24, 2012, Sgt. Kristopher Cool took his own life. Steed says he has known several people who died by suicide both before and since Cool, but his friend’s death has been “the worst one for so many reasons.” …
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To the Cowboy Who Taught Me To Fight Only When You Have To (The Good Men Project)
Even though my father spent the majority of his professional years as an educator, he’s always been a cowboy to me. Maybe it was because he taught animal science. Or maybe it goes back to the time he raised and sold bulls for a cattle company in Oregon.
I can still recall my early elementary years when he would go on work trips to various parts of the West. I would envision him riding the wild, stormy ranges on his horse, Bill (or “Mr. Bill,” as we kids called him). I drew pictures of him and stuck them to the door for him to find when he would return, usually late at night.
Then there’s the man today, almost 40 years later, the man who recently showed my 9-year-old daughter how to build a wooden frame for a picture she had drawn for her Nana. They were using power tools, but I wasn’t worried. Cowboys are sometimes a little wild, a little crazy, but they usually know what they’re doing when it comes to potential danger.
Even when they have Parkinson’s disease. …
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One Santa Out of Many: A Day in the Life of the Frontier Claus (St. George News)
FEATURE — In Cornelia Funke’s 2006 children’s book “When Santa Fell to Earth,” the author proposes – among other things – that there are many “Santas” who all work for the one true Santa.
For Lester Ross, who has played the part of St. Nick at Frontier Homestead State Park Museum’s “Christmas at the Homestead” since its inception, this idea inspires how he chooses to imbue the Christmas spirit in hundreds of children each year.
Besides requests for toys, Ross said the most common question he gets from children each year is “Are you the real Santa?” …
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Finding the light in the spectrum, raising a child with autism (St. George News)
ST. GEORGE — Raising a child is difficult under the best of circumstances. Being a single parent only compounds the challenges. And when you are the single parent of a child with autism, the job can often seem insurmountable – but Megan Thacker, who raised her infant autistic son for four years as a single mother, says the struggles and successes have given her a new outlook on life, and she feels lucky for the experience.
Thacker’s story first came to the attention of St. George News when she sent an email expressing her frustration with a story published in August about Aiden Nuzzo, a 7-year-old boy with autism who drowned in the pool of Sands Hotel in St. George.
“This article has troubled me from the moment I read it,” Thacker wrote. “I generally enjoy following St George news on Facebook because I can count on you to provide accurate and relevant news reports. This article, however, cut deep.” …
Paul D. Dail 