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Readers write: Seeing China in good company, reciprocity in a relationship, following up with lawman, outlaw, exploring music

Letters to the editor for the April 2, 2018 weekly magazine. 

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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
A woman wearing a uniform with the logo of an American produce company helps a customer shop for apples a supermarket in Beijing on March 23, 2018.
  • By Mark Delwiche Monitor reader
  • Barbara deSouza MacMath Monitor reader
  • Pat Minor Monitor reader
  • Joseph Charles Monitor reader

Seeing China in good company 

I wish to thank the Monitor and correspondent Ann Scott Tyson for the excellent Jan. 22 cover story that detailed her return to China after 25 years. 

Not only was this article informative regarding this burgeoning economy, it became so by drawing a vibrant picture of places and things in China that rarely come to our attention, and it framed the experience in an utterly charming and touching manner. 

I came away feeling as though I have seen a great deal of China in good company. 

Mark Delwiche

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Reciprocity in a relationship 

Regarding the March 2 Monitor Daily editorial, “The moral question behind Trump’s plan on metal tariffs”: Thank you for explaining the importance of reciprocity as central to a thriving relationship. But what happens when both sides don’t see reciprocity the same way? In an ideal world, everybody would be looking out for the other’s interest because we are all connected. So how do we cultivate the sense of oneness? 

Barbara deSouza MacMath

Trumbull, Conn.

Following up with lawman, outlaw

I found the Feb. 12 cover story, “The lawman and the outlaw,” to be well balanced between the outlaw and the lawman. I would like to see a follow-up in two years that looks into how both people are doing. 

Pat Minor

Goodwater, Ala.

Exploring music 

The Feb. 26 OneWeek article “Is music a gift all humans share?” was fascinating. It made me want to explore the research discussed more deeply. Thank you. I would like to see more like this, please.

Joseph Charles

Adrian, Mich.

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Mark Sappenfield
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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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