top of page

WEEKLY HABIT 2

CURATE MEDIA TO FOUR HOURS

TCR-png (logo draft #1)Artboard 4.png

The Habit at a Glance:

Stories matter so much that we must handle them with the utmost care. Resisting the constant stream of addictive media with an hour limit means we are forced to curate what we watch. Curating stories means that we seek stories that uphold beauty, that teach us to love justice, and that turn us to community.

IN A WORLD OF LIMITLESS STREAMING STORIES, WE MUST SET LIMITS THAT FORCE CURATION.

An Excerpt From The Common Rule

I was standing amid floor-to-ceiling shelves of books in wonder

and awe when my view of stories suddenly and forever changed. There were enormous piles of books lying in corners. Books covered the walls. Books even lined the staircases as you went up from one floor to the next. It was as if this used bookstore was not just a place for selling used books; it was like the infrastructure itself was made up of books. There were books to hold more books, stories built out of stories.

 

I was standing in Daedalus Books in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I had recently read Mortimer J. Adler’s How to Read a Book. I was alive with the desire to read. But at that particular moment, my glee turned to horror. For whatever reason, the truth of the numbers suddenly hit me. The year before, I had read about thirty books.

For me, that was a new record. But then I started counting. I was in my early twenties, and with any luck I’d live at least fifty more years. At that rate, I’d have about 1,500 books in me, give or take.

 

There were more books than that on the single wall I was staring at.

 

That’s when I had a realization of my mortality. My desire outpaced reality. I simply didn’t have the life to read what I wanted to read.

Reading and Resources:

bottom of page