Sunday Dutro

What’s the line between doing nice things for others and stepping on toes, or even doing things for someone they don’t want done? I grew up learning that if you see someone hurting, you help. Help can be a hug, an ear, an offer to do something for them. Those things all sound great, very helpful.

Around summer, books seem to shrink, making way for the summer readers who want something they can finish on a single flight, a day by the river, or a quick road trip. Publishing has always been seasonal - romances in summer, cozy mysteries in winter - but this overall shrinkage in book size seems to be a result of the expense of publishing more than a seasonal change, though some will blame our shrinking attention spans due to social media. Have you noticed these changes? What do you think?

Once upon a time, I was an excellent conversationalist. I’d read the right books and met the right people and had the right teachers, apparently, because I knew all the ways to do small talk and build up to questions that got the other person talking. I was skilled and adept at getting someone else to talk, keeping them talking, and having the conversation end in such a way that they felt heard and like it was the best conversation they’d had in a long time.