I read something this morning and felt like I'd received a gift

I read a lot. And I read a lot of personal writing -- essays, columns or first-person accounts of something or other, stuff like that.

And I like to think that I recognize honesty in that type of writing, and can gauge when someone's going through the motions, or trying but not really getting there, or unreservedly opening themselves up and standing before me, the reader.

But every now and then I read something that makes me realize I give a lot of writers a pass. I read something that is so bracing, so true, it's pleasantly startling. It is a gift from the writer.

This morning I read Steve Navaroli's column, "Taking a break to battle cancer." Steve, a YDR sports staffers, writes columns as part of his job. But he's never written one like this.

I know Steve as part of our staff here; he's universally known as a good guy. I don't know him well personally.

But I know him better now. Through his act of writing, of honesty and with a perfect sense of an emotional moment, he gave me that gift.

Thanks, Steve. Count me among those looking forward to your return.

Book collects best work of young writers

Ah,well. This is a book you'd want to pick up or download: A collection of work from "The Next Wave" of literary journalists.

Quiet video for a quiet subject

In the sometimes-less-is-more department, I give you this video from Kate Penn on Darnell Rias, the former Marine that she and Mike Argento have been following as he rebuilds his post-war life. Rias suffered a broken back and brain injury in Afghanistan, and has PTSD, but he is moving forward by going to college and getting his own apartment.

Rias is quiet and soft-spoken, but you can hear a lot inside his words. Kate's video is quiet, too, and paced to let you hear Rias' determination and hope.