![]() Sitting straight in our chairs, shoulders dropped, attending to the space in and around us, observing how it shifts with our intentions for it. To make sure there’s no trace of this, we shape ourselves differently to start with, beginning each session by connecting with ourselves, with our feet, our spines. ![]() This wouldn’t be possible if we were hunched forward in our chairs, foreheads close to the zoom screen, eyes squinting, brows furrowed, pen clutched in hand, poised to capture the first inconsistency we hear and spit it back venomously at the writer as soon as we can. What soaks into our skin and imperceptibly enters our bloodstream. We do this gently: energetically we’re standing back a few paces back from the piece and its creator, letting the words wash over us, and noticing what sticks in our mind, arises in our heart. We first encounter each other’s work by listening to the writer read it. Part of what we’re doing in Soul Writing workshops is dismantling this automatic way of moving through life. So in a way it’s natural that we’d approach others’ work the same way, regardless of context. The metrics are “is it worth my time?” “Is it entertaining me?” “Am I pissed enough to respond?” If something doesn’t prove to be one or all of those things within the first few words, generally we move on. Not to mention how poised we all are to be offended. It’s the posture most of us walk around in all the time, with which we approach everything: price tags, newspapers, social media posts. There is room in all writing, all art, all the world, for scrutiny. I want to invite us all to be gentle readers. In this moment I’m moved to reclaim it as something more literal. This puts me in mind of those old-timey pieces addressed “Dear gentle reader.” Surely it was a nod of respect, referring to the reader as a gentleperson/woman/man. It is so essential to have safe people around our creations, at least to begin with. ![]() Naturally I will pick people who are likely to do this regardless of my requests. This is a vulnerable new creation that needs to be handled with care. Mostly I want to know how it impacts them, or if it does.Ībove all, I’ll ask that they be gentle, please. That they don’t compare it to the great literature they’ve read (after all, I have no training, no degrees, no academic grounding whatsoever in what ‘good writing’ is-and anyway, this isn’t written in that spirit). I’ll ask that they only point out anything that is glaring in its ignorance or obtuseness or confusion. Thinking about how I’m going to frame it, a few requests come to mind. This is collective intelligence, with no artificial ingredients.I’m finishing up something I’m hoping to publish and, as part of the process, will soon send it out to a few folks to read. Once you start reading and bookmarking on Gentle Reader, you can ask Gentle Reader to find other readers with very similar reading habits to yours, and then to show you what other articles they are also reading. Browsing, bookmarking and saving are the one-two-three of serious reading. If you think that sounds like a mashup of Google Reader, Pinboard and Instapaper, then we’re thinking the same way. See what people with similar reading habits to you are also reading Browse articles from almost any publication or website It civilises the experience of online reading. Bookmark any article you find around the web directly to your Gentle Reader Bookmarks for reading later You are the Gentle Reader
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