I have worked in tiny town America and for a couple of major news networks. I have noticed the people in tiny towns seem to want to be seen more than the people at the major news networks. I mean, I don’t go around announcing my background, and I’m not sure they do either, but I’ve noticed them.

I read about a woman a week or so ago in the trades who recently died. She was apparently the first to ever host a national news program for NPR. And I thought, dang I’ve never heard of her, and she was a pioneer. (Her name was Susan Stamberg.)

That made me wonder about all the people in the entertainment business, whether in broadcasting or not, who will never be known by everyone, or anyone. Including the guy I met on the elevator in my building who’s an actor in a new TV show. And the woman I met at the gym who is an actor of the stage. When you go to a play on Broadway and you’re astounded by the talent of those performers, you realize, I don’t know them, and they are amazing. And they obviously want to be seen (and maybe known), or they wouldn’t stand before you. They and I are just specs or blips on the screen. And yet it feels good to be known, but not in that way. It feels good to be known by the server at the local café, the woman on the treadmill next to you, the guy in the elevator with a funny sweatshirt on, the producer of a morning radio show, the woman behind the counter at the dentist office or the nurse for the busy doctor, and your chiropractor. It feels good to be seen, but I don’t have to be seen.

It feels good to be listened to, but I don’t have to be listened to. I don’t care much if I’m known, but I want to be heard and seen, and known too, by my neighbors, my community and by my family and friends.