How to Break Out of the Bubble

Social media and the mainstream press overflow with emotional diatribes based on the fastest, most superficial readings of a situation. Then others feel the need to share their knee-jerk reactions with the same lack of introspection… invoking even more people to share their commensurately vapid thoughts. As you know, we take a stoic view on these things. We once read an interview with TV personality Hugh Downs. At the time, he’d logged more TV hours than any other human being. But the article was about his endeavor to read all the classic books in the Western Canon. He had decided to read for 15 minutes a night and figured the great books might take him a year or so to get through. He took a stoic approach, decided the length of time didn’t really matter, because he didn’t have any control over his ability to understand a particular passage or whether he agreed with the writer or not. Still Mr. Downs persevered. Rather a short 12 months turned into 13 years.