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Readers write: Scottish phrases, more photos, reading habits, learning about the Amazon

Letters to the editor for the Oct. 22, 2018 weekly magazine.

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Amanda Paulson/The Christian Science Monitor
Giant waterlilies in the Amazon River have complex structures that enable them to hold a substantial weight, and were the inspiration for some modern architecture.
  • By Monitor readers

Scottish phrases

I enjoyed the Sept. 24 Home Forum essay, “I am taught by towels.” I’ve read English and historical romantic novels and Terry Pratchett’s “Wee Free Men” series, so I’ve picked up a smattering of Scottish words. They are fun!

Joy V. Smith

Lakeland, Fla.

More photos

The Sept. 3 People Making a Difference article about Ayr Muir would benefit from more photos involving the food or one of the Clover Food Lab restaurants. I also want to know what other cities these restaurants are in. What this article did do was arouse my interest; I went to their website and found out what I needed to know. I am so glad I know about this restaurant that is “on a mission,” and it made me wish one was in my city. Thank you.

Gretchen Liuzzi

Philadelphia

Reading habits

Regarding Ronald W. McLean’s Oct. 1 letter: Yes, there are people who read each issue from back to front, and I am one of them. I started reading that way years ago and for the same reasons. Reading his letter made me smile. And how I miss John Gould’s essays! But Robert Klose’s are the next best thing. I have saved every one. May the Monitor and Mr. Klose “write on” for many years.

Judith Park

Santa Rosa, Calif.

Learning about the Amazon

Kudos to Amanda Paulson for her great Oct. 1 cover story. Interesting about mosquitoes. I always thought they were everywhere in the Amazon since a friend had to come inside while emailing me from there because his screen became so blackened! The article told me more about that part of the world than I was ever taught or had read about before.

CAROLYN HILL

Portland, Ore.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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