Harriet, a retired schoolteacher, runs a prison Book Club for female inmates in the novel How to Read a Book. Her advice to the readers is to sit with a story for a few moments. “Let it settle first,” she’d say. “Let it settle before deciding what it’s about.”
It’s good advice, not only for Book Club but for many things in life. Let that email settle before you fire back a response. Consider whether that social media posting is based in fact before you forward it. Give your partner grace before you make up a story about what their comment meant. Pause to reflect on whether you’re happy with the direction your life is going.
Information comes at us so fast that just the joy of reading involves slowing down from the usual barrage of inputs, but you can wait a few minutes longer even with that. Let this dot settle before deciding what it’s about — and how you could act on it.
Source: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood, 2024 (delightful story — recommend!)
