Today I’m honored to be participating in the One Small Change series over at Addie Zierman’s blog. Addie is a gifted writer and a sweet lady, and even though we didn’t get to chat for nearly long enough I loved meeting her and her husband in Chicago in September. Her memoir, When We Were on Fire, is one of the best things I read in 2013.Â
Addie asked us to share one small, doable thing we were doing to change the world. She wrote, “when I figured out that I could actually do one small thing, I felt empowered to do other small things…and that in the end, this is how the world is changed. Regular people doing small, regular things.”
Here’s mine:
I quit watching the news a long time ago. I don’t read much coverage these days, either. I’m not proud of this, but this healthy boundary prevents my over-empathizing self from falling apart after the top-of-the-hour news reports or a half hour with the Sunday paper.
But I recognize it is patently unfair to shut out the sorrows of the world because I can.Â
And so I choose to enter in, through the written word, because though the news buries me with everything that’s going wrong in this world, a book opens the window to another….
***** Â Â ***** Â Â *****
Speaking of best books of the year: Shauna Niequist’s Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table is just $1.99 for Kindle right now. Definitely one of my top 5 for 2013. Go grab yours now!
3 comments
I had to stop watching the news when I had my son. Thanks for making me feel better about that.
I added When We Were on Fire to my “To Read” list on Goodreads. And, I purchased the Bread & Wine book this morning as soon as I saw it in my email. I remembered that you had recommended it. Can’t wait to read it.
I really don’t think you owe it to the world to expose yourself to sadness and horror on a regular basis. I remember a woman on TV once who said we should really only be aware of the ups and downs of our immediate village, that we aren’t wired for the never ending travails that the news delivers. I stopped watching TV and movies after the birth of my second child. Even the theatre is a challenge for me sometimes (but I still go to that, I just try for plays I know about already). I have to take it easy with the newspaper too. The youngest is 11 now and I can feel it starting to shift a little.