THE MAGIC OF BOOKS

 

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it or explore a dangerous idea without fearing it will go off in your face.  It is one of the few sources left where information is served up without the silent black noise of a headline or the hullabaloo of a commercial.  It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.                                                                                                         Edward P. Morgan

 I loved the Reader’s Digest magazine.  “An article a day of lasting interest.”  I read it at home from cover to cover from the time I was a little kid.  Then in the 7^th grade, each student got an issue every month to study in one of our classes at school.  Plus, I learned a lot of vocabulary by taking the word test every month.  It used to have 20 words in the quiz. As the years went by, that dwindled to 18, then maybe 15.  Then a few years ago, the Reader's Digest quietly went out of my life.  I still miss it and think often when I am in certain situations how my perception of something, or a nugget of information was gleaned by those articles I read lo, those many years ago! 

In several of their monthly features, the Reader's Digest advertised that they would pay for the first submission of a published item.  I had read the above quote in an issue of Ball Corporation's glossy company magazine, which came to my husband as their employee. I love books, so the quote resonated with me. I promptly sent it to the Reader’s Digest for their monthly feature “Points to Ponder”.   Anyway, I thought it was an exceptional point of view.  Apparently so did the RD editors. 

Imagine my surprise when I received the following correspondence in the mail a few weeks later:

January 22, 1979

 Dear Ms. Nichols:

We’re pleased to enclose our check for $35 in appreciation to you for sending us the attached item, scheduled to appear on page 220 of the February [1979 Reader’s] Digest.            

 Sincerely yours,

Catherine Conklin

WOW!!  I had been "published"!  It was a pretty heady feeling for quite a while and totally cemented my devotion to the Reader's Digest for the rest of my life. 

                   

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026!

 

January 2026

I have always loved the hymn “Ring Out Wild Bells” which is in our current Latter-day Saint hymnal.  It is based on one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 131 short poems in a longer work titled “In Memoriam”.  Tennyson wrote the long poem over a period of 14 years as he worked through the grief of losing his close friend who died when they were in their early 20’s.

Tennyson sometimes referred to his own long poem by the subtitle, “The Progress of the Soul,” because it describes the steps by which his intense personal grief finally brought him to greater compassion and spiritual sensitivity. 

“Ring Out Wild Bells”, was one of the poems from this long work mentioned above.  Tennyson was determined to leave behind the disappointment and narrow vision of the grief-filled past he had been living in.  This phrase from the poem “the larger heart, the kindlier hand,” indicates his ability to finally reach outward to others and extend himself in good works to those around him.

One of the reasons I like this particular hymn is that it is written in a minor key which, in a way, reflects Tennyson’s sadness and sorrow.  But the final line of the hymn, “Ring in the Christ that is to be,” asks us to rise to the full stature of Christ within ourselves as the very last note of the hymn ends in a major key.

I just find that positive ending such an uplift in a new year with fresh prospects and opportunities to do greater things and to be better people as we become the light that draws other people to Christ through our example.

I invite you, and me also, to make this verse from Matthew one of our goals for 2026.

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR  2026 !

Note:  Alfred, Lord Tennyson is probably the best known of the English Victorian poets in the 1800’s.  We readily recognize this famous quote of his which is also from the same poem “In Memoriam”.                   

 ”Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”