Communication is a two-way street

As senior editor, my job is to be a stickler for the standards set for our brand.

- Nancy Baye

But there's a conundrum when I worry about when changes that might be seen as disrespecting how contributors expresses themselves. I never want to do that, quite the opposite. Editors are often caught between loyalty to style consistency and the voice of their contributors. It's a pickle.

For example, when a writer puts quotations around words to indicate they're being tongue-in-cheek, I must remove those quotation marks, which our style only uses for direct quotes. That happened in this issue, turning "normal" into normal.

But what is normal anymore? As it pertains to people, to life, hasn't normal become an unnecessary word?

This issue was steered by Guest Editor Angela Lynn, who navigated us through the world of auditory challenges, and how they affect travel. When she used the term people with abilities, I felt that zing of empowerment focuses on ability, not disability.