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"Pay attention. Read deeper. Read the whole poem. Read the whole book. Learn the whole story." THIS. All of what you wrote here. It goes very much in line with a little personal experiment I've been doing, which is to read newsletters, blog posts and any longform content SLOWLY. To read it ALL. And now I will pay more attention to the whole piece when it comes to quotes and such, I love the idea of doing a bit of sleuthing to view it in its whole context. ❤️

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YES! I feel a little piece of our collective soul withers every time someone writes "one wild and precious life" without knowing the whole poem. 🔥

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Jul 15, 2022Liked by Meghan Genge

I love this piece, Meghan. We do need to look at the whole setting for the fragments of poems or books we read. I hope you are eventually able to find the true and full story behind the quotation that so spoke to your heart.

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One of the reasons it’s become uncool to read slowly and attentively is that so much of the Internet is data-driven because it’s the easiest thing to quantify. Hook that up to an algorithm and an edless supply of shiny new books a click away and in no time people are comparing the number of books they’ve read (or claimed to have) rather than their depth of engagement. That’s so much harder to measure

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My favorite Mary Oliver quote is: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" It always evoked that feeling of wanting to live life to the fullest and going after your heartfelt dreams.

Your post made me look up the poem where it came from, "The Summer Day". And within this context, it lands a little differently because the rest of the poem made me think more of simple joys and miracles in the mundane. ❤️

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