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Sense of Direction

What is or isn’t a waste of time?

June Donohue
Posted 5/6/22

Since the time I have left on this earth is becoming shorter and shorter, I am trying to make the best use of it as I can. One rule I have which I am finding hard to follow is to not read anything I …

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Sense of Direction

What is or isn’t a waste of time?

Posted

Since the time I have left on this earth is becoming shorter and shorter, I am trying to make the best use of it as I can. One rule I have which I am finding hard to follow is to not read anything I am only mildly interested in. I feel compelled to read every article from top to bottom in the old newspapers that are piled up on my bed.

I am afraid I’ll be found like the Collier Brothers, that I read about long ago, buried alive in old newspapers. A few years ago I ordered the Sunday New York Times, and found so many fascinating articles in such a wide range of topics, that I cut a raft of them out and still cannot bear to throw them out.

So my dilemma is, do I again buy the Sunday New York Times because it is such high quality and I am more than mildly interested? Perhaps I can toss aside the AARP magazine or the obituary sections of the Bergen Record where I’m inclined to read about people I don’t even know who are no longer with us.

The trouble is I once read that to become a good writer, one must constantly read, even if it’s just what’s written on cereal boxes. Maybe I’m overthinking this and I should just relax, write my column every other week and in my diary every day and then just read what I’ve written.

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