Damn. I'm sorry to hear this. Lance gave me some sound advice to consider once, and I did so. It had a significant bearing on my life, and my respect for him, ever since.
I'd lost my last full-time journalism job, at a major metro, and I was hurting, both emotionally and economically, at the time. Being open to a significant change if that was needed, a job ad Lance posted on here for the Grants Pass paper appealed to me, and I applied for a sports reporting position there. I was confident I'd get an interview, and indeed, I did. I did well with it, and I could tell Lance was interested in having me. What's more, especially after speaking to Lance, I was still interested in working in Grants Pass.
After a long interview that turned into an enjoyable, rambling conversation that included him trying to get me to try to guess who he was on here -- I told him, no, I didn't know, and didn't want to know, given my standing don't ask-don't-tell policy -- he turned serious and gave me some thoughts and a perspective that I hadn't considered.
After we both expressed our mutual interest, he told me to take a couple of days to think about whether I really wanted to make a move to Grants Pass, because it would be, well, a culture shock to the system for me after my previous job, both in terms of the local area and population (or the relative lack thereof), and the newspaper itself (which wasn't a daily), and that, while he knew Grants Pass to be a beautiful, wonderful place, I just might be unhappy once I'd settled there, alone and away from everyone and everything as I'd long known them. I said I was sure I'd be OK, that I loved my time spent in the rural area where my parents owned a vacation home and was confident I could be comfortable and happy with a slower pace of life, but that, yes, I'd take some time and consider everything, and that I'd get back to him.
That weekend, the more I thought about things, the more I realized that Lance might be right, and that the job he had to offer might not be the one for me, particularly over the long term, and I called him the following week to let him know that I was no longer interested. He said he'd had a feeling that would be the case, but he was gracious and we remained in touch for a while afterward via email and Facebook. Despite the relatively little contact we had over the years, he has still popped up in my thoughts periodically since then, and I think that says something about how much I've always appreciated his perspective and wisdom, and ultimately, his help with an important decision. It was something that, at the time, I hadn't even realized that I needed.
RIP, Lance.
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