EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK:Cheers, Newport-Mesa

I am really lousy at goodbyes.

My plan today, my last of more than eight years with this company and most of them at the Daily Pilot, was to fade quietly. I want no party, no cake, not even a goodbye drink.

OK, I’ll accept some goodbye drinks. After all, I have some time free ahead of me.

That freedom, everyone should know, is why I’m leaving.

In one of my previous lives, as I tend to think of them, when I was studying English literature, I came across a phrase from the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”

That dizziness is what I’m feeling these days. It’s an exciting feeling. It’s possibility.

Honestly, I don’t know what possibility I’m going to end up in, but I am anxious to discover what it is.

But I have all the time in the world to look forward. Let me take a few moments to look back, one last time.

Newport-Mesa residents are remarkably fortunate to have the Daily Pilot here. You — whether you agree with how the paper runs or its editorials or anything else — get more information, on a daily basis, about your community than anywhere I know of. That allows for deep involvement in civic life, and that deep involvement by so many people shows in the quality of this place.

I’m proud to have been a part of this paper. I deeply believe in the importance of journalism, especially local journalism, in this society. We are, after all, written into the 1st Amendment. That says something.

I will miss being a part of that importance, every day.

I also will miss the scores and scores of remarkable people I have met, laughed with and learned from over the years. My roles here, especially as editor and managing editor before that, allowed me to have contact with an incredible caliber of people. They are key to the quality and success of this community.

If I started to mention any, I could go on and fill these pages, and I’d still leave out someone who deserved to be at the top of the list. I hope that if you’ve had the effect on me I’m talking about, you know you are on that list.

Thanks to one and all. I’ve enjoyed every Christmas Boat Parade, Mayor’s Dinner, Toshiba Classic and Mesa Verde Classic I’ve been a part of, and all the other events as well.

It is the connections with people that are most important, and because those connections are central to the journalism we do here, it has been a full and rich time.

It also has been a weird and wacky time. There have been a lot of characters and strange stories. Heck, just these past few days the weirdness has included a rumor I’ve heard, one I guess I should dispel: I’m not leaving because I’m a defeated, ultra-liberal whose master plan to ruin Costa Mesa didn’t come to fruition.

Believe me, I wish I had the time to manipulate the machinery to such an extent. Newport-Mesa would be better off!

Ha. Those who know me know I’m kidding. Those who don’t, well, I am. And that’s a fact, for those who think newspapers rarely print facts anymore.

I’m proud, very proud, that we have played things fairly and thoughtfully. Our only bias — and, really, the only bias of most journalists — is to doing good journalism. Nothing more. Nothing hidden.

And there, really, are few better journalists than those at the Daily Pilot. This community is in good hands.

Ugh. See. I said I was bad a goodbyes. This proves it. And I think it also just about says it. Strange. I’ve written hundreds of columns and maybe 1,000 editorials here, and these are my last words. I have no idea which to pick.

I’ll just go with these: Thanks, and see you around.