Not to brag, but readers like dsm. We often hear compliments about the cover designs, photos and stories about various people and places. But it’s not every day that we hear praise from a national spelling bee judge. When Mary Brooks talked to our copy editor and staff writer Jane Burns for her profile (see here), she told her: “I have never seen a mistake in dsm and, believe me, I see them everywhere else.”
That’s nice to hear. And also, frankly, a little nerve-wracking. I sure hope we didn’t misspell anything in her profile. It feels like cooking for a chef or cutting a barber’s hair.
Fortunately, eagle-eyed Jane is very good at her job. She founded an annual adult spelling bee in her Wisconsin hometown and reviews an endless stack of drafts for both dsm and the Business Record. In this issue alone, she checked weltanschauung (a person’s worldview), sepak takraw (a Southeast Asian sport) and Kapingamarangi (a Polynesian language).
It occurs to me that I might be able to spell that K-word more easily if I’d grown up in the South Pacific instead of Ames. Sometimes, things seem intimidating only because they’re unfamiliar. Sometimes, learning even just a bit about something can make it feel more approachable.
That’s the guiding idea behind our annual Inclusion section, led by our thoughtful associate editor, Hailey Evans. You’ll find stories that introduce you to local folks whose experiences and perspectives may be different from your own. These are the kinds of stories that remind us how a community grows by making room for more people to feel at home. With any luck, they might even expand our weltanschauung.
