I have been reading Reader’s Digest for EVER! My Mom read it when I was small. Somewhere along the line I picked up a copy, and have been reading it ever since. I enjoy the stories because they are short and sweet. Some of the articles are condensed versions of other publications.
I usually read late into the night, while I am trying to fall to sleep. Not that the magazine is boring and will put you to sleep, it’s that I can read a complete story before falling off to sleep. I don’t have to ’’push myself’’ to ’’get the next chapter’’.
Some of the articles are light hearted and cheerful, while others will tear at your heart. ’’Should This Baby Be Saved?’’ (RD January 2003) was an honest and gripping account of a family’s struggle to do what they thought was right. They were up against a doctor, who also thought he was doing what was right.
Featured in every magazine are lots of funny stories, too. I particularly enjoy ’’Laughter, the Best Medicine’’ and ’’Life in These United States’’. We Americans may be a lot of things, but as long as we can keep our sense of humor there is hope for us.
Reader’s Digest is a great publication for many reasons, but especially one. Packed in the pages of this magazine is a simple thread of ’’hope’’. The magazine is built around hope. Article after article reminds us that there is hope. Hope that we are not alone. Hope that we can right a wrong. Hope we can lose weight. Hope that a new doctor is more concerned with her patient’s than money. Hope that bullying can be stopped.
And ’’there ain’t nothin’ sweeter than hope’’!