1619: This week is about action

Plus: Thank you very much for our deep and thoughtful discussion

Hello Book Clubbers, and welcome to Week 24. Thank you very much for participating in our discussion yesterday. If you couldn’t make our session, we missed you — and we’re looking forward to seeing you back next time.

This week, we don’t have a new essay to read. Instead, we have a break to reflect and act. (You can think of this as a week-long version of what we usually do in 7 minutes.)

As we head into the last part of the book, I’ve been thinking: We have been reading, thinking about, discussing, engaging with, and grappling with significantly important ideas. Now the question is: What are we going to do?

Each essay has been an invitation. Has one essay spoken to you in a special way? One that spurs you to act? Do you know why you’ve moved, where it comes from? And if you know why, do you know what you might do, as a result of being moved?

There are many ways we can make a contribution. There are many ways that we can be of use. In fact, sometimes I feel like the social media feed has been constructed to distract us, to get us mad about everything, such that we do nothing.

We have spent the last six months in deep study. As we finish the book, I encourage us all to move toward action. What are you thinking about doing?

There’s no requirement to share your reflections and actions with the group, but if you would like to, that’s what the comment section is for! I’m sure your fellow book clubbers (and I!) would like to hear from you.

And in case you want to get a good start on our last module, here’s our reading schedule. You’ll see that we end the book with some significant people.

I’ll be back next week with an introduction to “Traffic,” by Kevin Kruse. Until then, I hope you have time to rest, reflect, and start building your action plan. Have a great week, everyone. Thank you again for being part of our book club.