Thank you, Roy.

Last week during the annual Religion Newswriters Association convention in Atlanta, my mentor as a religion journalist, the GREAT Roy Larson — he the former longtime religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, publisher of the Chicago Reporter, professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism where he spearheaded a vanguard program to train journalists to cover religion (in all its varied manifestations) in the secular media — was honored with a lifetime achievement award.

I had a professional conflict (on an assignment — and those are few-and-far-between for many of us journalists these days) and couldn’t make it to Atlanta to pay homage to the man who set me on the professional path I’ve been trodding for nearly 20 years. So I sent my regards (on top of deadline, as usual) to Roy via several friends who were at the convention. I’m not sure if my words got to him, and even if they did, I thought I’d share them here.

Why? Because we all need to stop and say thank you to the folks who got us where we are. The wind beneath ‘dem wings. The shoulders on which we stand. The ones who fought the battles so we didn’t have to, and the voices that said “you can do this” when so many others said the opposite.

So, once again, thank you, Roy.

“What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: it isn’t someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.”

― Paulo Coelho

Dear Roy,

How do I properly thank the person who opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing — and marveling at — the world?

How do I convey with words the deep bow of gratitude I wish I were present tonight to give you in person, for showing me “The God Factor” in everything — how to look and listen for it, what to do with it when I found it?

How do I express what an honor it was to be your student, to follow in your impossible-to-fill footsteps at the Chicago Sun-Times, to take that sense of wonder and curiosity (which, on this God Beat of ours, is far more important, in my experience, than skepticism or cynicism) and put it to work?

Roy, I would not have had the career I have had were it not for you. I would not have had the unbelievable adventures, conversations, and surprises discovering the Holy in the places most people don’t expect to find it, were it not for you showing me the way.

In my world, you are the finger pointing at the moon (to borrow a metaphor from our Buddhist friends.) You have been both friend and rabbi. How blessed am I to call you both?

I respect you more than I could ever say, I honor you for the life’s work — an intricate, glorious tapestry — woven by telling the stories of how we humans choose to interact with the divine.

Thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you for making the delight of discovery look inescapably appealing.

Thank you for showing me what I already knew, but didn’t yet recognize.

Thank you, Roy.

I love you,

Cathleen