That is an version of The Surprise Reader, a e-newsletter during which our editors suggest a set of tales to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Enroll right here to get it each Saturday morning.
“Speaking about politics at our household gatherings will be like smoking a cigarette at a gasoline station—there’s a great probability it is going to make the entire place explode,” the journalist Elizabeth Harris wrote final yr. So she tried to method these conversations like a reporter: “I wasn’t seeking to have a back-and-forth; I used to be on the lookout for data. I wished to know what they thought and why.”
Politics isn’t the one subject that may really feel not possible to debate. Households battle to speak about their historical past, about what they want from each other, in regards to the issues they remorse or haven’t forgiven each other for. The vacations can typically really feel just like the powder keg Harris described, the place everyone seems to be making an attempt to keep away from saying the improper factor. However possibly there’s one other approach. In the present day’s e-newsletter explores the way to method even the toughest household conversations.
On Household Conversations
The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Households however Ought to
By Elizabeth Keating
Many individuals don’t know very a lot about their older relations. But when we don’t ask, we danger by no means figuring out our personal historical past. (From 2022)
Methods to Not Battle With Your Household About Politics
By Elizabeth Harris
This vacation, ask questions like a reporter.
Why We Converse Extra Weirdly at Dwelling
By Kathryn Hymes
When folks share an area, their collective expertise can sprout its personal vocabulary, generally known as a familect. (From 2021)
Nonetheless Curious?
Different Diversions
PS
I just lately requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on the planet. In the present day’s submission is from Karen P., who describes her view of “life in retirement at Dawn Seaside in Marshfield, Massachusetts.”
I’ll proceed to function your responses within the coming weeks.
— Isabel
