Hi friends, I’m writing first with apology, as I’ve been sick this past week and therefore this letter is reaching you later than planned. I’ll work in an extra in the week ahead so none will be missed, and once again, save the date for our LIVE closing session to this seasonal intensive of Your Summer of Rewilding!
As a reader by passion and editor by profession, I live for underlines. Personally I go light in my annotations when I’m reading for myself (my editing annotations are another story!) but if you were to peruse my library you’d find a scattering of hearts and exclamation points in the margins, and underlines throughout.
I underline to seal an idea into my memory and I love to revisit past favorites by reading what stood out to me first. As an editor, I also love the e-reader function of seeing what other readers underline as a window to the reader’s world.
In my mind, this is what’s most exciting about an underline: it signals a true meeting of the minds, the place where an author’s thought and a reader’s resonance met each other on some moonlit bridge.
An underline signals encounter. And isn’t that what we read for, to know we’re not alone?
When a writer earns a reader’s underline, it’s akin to the deep “mmm” of a crowd who’s listening and hanging onto every word of a speaker. Every underline is a “Yes!”
So for our summer of rewilding series, today we’re doing a close read of a cherished underlined passage of mine that is wild indeed, as a study in the magic that happens when writers dare to stay true to their voice—no matter how seemingly risky.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.