A lesson in living

When I met Dana Jennings back in the late 1970s, I thought of him as the student and I was the professional; he was the boy, I was the man; he was the intern, I was the full-fledged reporter.

After many years, Dana (at left) and I saw each other this week at the University of New Hampshire, where he'd been invited as a visiting journalist as a part of the UNH journalism program.

We're only separated in age by five years. Funny how time skews context. Back then, with me in my mid-20s and Dana in his early 20s, the difference of five years seemed like a big deal, a gap of generations.

These days, the gap has closed: We're 50-somethings, Baby Boomers, dads to children who are either in college or college graduates. We're empty nesters.

For one semester a generation ago, when I was the City Hall reporter for the Peabody, Mass., Times daily newspaper, Dana came on as an intern from the University of New Hampshire.

I thought then I knew it all and that Dana had a lot to learn.

And, in the context of being a reporter, that was probably true. I did know a lot and Dana was just starting out.

Since then, I've worked at various community newspapers for 33 years and retired in June 2008 to a reinvented career as a keyboard for hire, writing web content for a variety of news sites.

Dana worked at a variety of newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and is now at the New York Times, all in relative anonymity ... until he started blogging on the NYT's Well blog about his prostate cancer.

You need to take some time and read Dana's posts.

Go there now. Click on the link above. If you don't come back to these words that's OK. But find a way to read Dana's posts.

He will show you through his writing -- through his grace and his humor -- how he has coped with his diagnosis, treatment and recovery from an aggressive Stage 3 cancer.

Many of us as we age, want to find a way to express how we lived, to put the years into some kind of context and perspective. Dana shows how writing can lead to discovery.

He transforms the personal into the universal. His posts about his cancer are intensely personal, but have a universal ring to the thousands of people who have responded online to his posts.

As a reporter over the years, Dana like other reporters played an anonymous role of providing readers with just the facts ma'am. "Blogging," he said to a gathering at UNH, "gave me time to find my voice."

Dana told me the other day he regarded me as a mentor back then. He returns the favor. A hundred fold.

He, like he does for so many who read his blog, mentors me by showing what it means to live and reach beyond who you think you are and what you're capable of doing.