Last week I drove up to Greenwood to celebrate Larry Alderman's retirement as ad manager of the Greenwood Commonwealth. Larry started working at the Commonwealth on August 15, 1977. That’s 48 years of continuous service. He rarely took a vacation. He said he looked forward to coming to work every day.
Speaking to a group of family, friends and colleagues, Larry spoke of how much he enjoyed helping advertisers and readers. He always felt like he was making people’s lives better.
One colleague said Larry was the best person he ever met. Period.
I began work at the Commonwealth in 1973 at age 15, working in the darkroom developing film and photographs. It was a painstaking process involving lots of chemicals that probably were not good for me. That was 52 years ago. So I’ve known Larry a long, long time. I’ve never met a nicer person.
Larry worked the way God intended. He wasn’t trying to get rich or conquer the world. He never got angry or lost his temper. He did his job the best he could, patiently, competently, humbly and with a pervading peace and calm that can only come from the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Now, surrounded by a beautiful supporting family and his darling grandchildren, you could see the fruits of his labors. He will enjoy his retirement in the same steady manner that he has enjoyed his career.
Over 3,000 years ago King Solomon was the King of Israel and the richest man in the world. Yet he found no satisfaction in all his immense wealth.
“I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. . . Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:9-11.
In the end, Solomon realized that the genuine happiness came from the simple pleasure of a good day’s work followed by a nice dinner, a glass of wine and fellowship with friends and family.
“So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.” Ecclesiastes 2:24.
“I know that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.” Ecclesiastes 3:12–13.
How many people squander their lives on the ambitious pursuit of wealth only to find their lives exhausted, relationships ruined and the treasure sought evaporating in their hands? Larry realized this early and escaped this unhappy fate.
Something similar happened to me. Working on Wall Street in my 20s, I felt like I was king of the world. But what I saw around me didn’t make sense. I found no joy trying to get rich by making the rich richer and consolidating the newspaper industry into one giant mega company. I came back to Mississippi and went into the family business. It is a decision I have never regretted.
As Jackson Browne wrote in his song Lady of the Well, “Across my home has grown the shadow of a cruel and distant hand, but in some strong hearts the loving still remains. And it has taken me this distance and a woman’s smile to learn that my heart remains among them and to them I must return.”
Later that night, I read that Google had been convicted in federal court of monopolizing digital advertising for the second time in a few months.
Meanwhile, community publications struggle to survive.
Big Tech is a shadow across our land. But in Mississippi there are still a lot of strong hearts. Larry has been one of many of those strong hearts.
