martinimade

"The answer to why we bought the Beekman could fill the entire paper. Because we wanted a place to get away from the city. Because we wanted to grow our own food. Because the place looks like it belongs on the cover of a magazine, and we wanted a life that looked like the cover of a magazine. Because no one else in the area had the means to take care of such a high-maintenance historic building, and it seemed like a generous task to take on. Because I'm turning 40 next year and wanted something to show for it. Because we're vain, kindhearted, ambitious, shallow, deep, humble, trendy, old-fashioned, rich, poor, proud, and vulnerable. Those are merely the beginning of the reasons we bought the Beekman.

"But those are too many words for the reporter. She only needs one truth for the article. So we pick the one that sparkles most.

"We bought the Beekman to return to a simpler life.

"Truth isn't beauty. It isn't even always true. Truth is nothing more than consistency of message.

"I learned that from advertising."

-- Josh Kilmer-Purcell, The Bucolic Plague, which I strongly recommend, both as an interesting story and as a meditation on how to build stories.