How do you decide what to read?

I subscribe to too many news sources and journals - more than I can keep up with.  One of them is a print magazine known as The Deacon (formerly known as Deacon Digest, I believe).  Yes, there is a magazine for every interest group, even deacons.

Everyone around here knows I am a deacon.  I mention it, on average, once every four or five sentences.  The casual reader might conclude that I have an interest in, perhaps even passion for, the diaconate.  And they'd be right.

Based on that knowledge of what makes me tick, you might expect that I would devour every issue of The Deacon from front to back.  But so far, it hasn't worked out that way.

I received an email today promoting content in The Deacon.  I'd genuinely like to know: would any of these teasers motivate you to click through and read the article?  Here they are:

1.  A Future Diaconate: Deacon [author name redacted] writes, “The future diaconate requires careful and creative discernment and pastoral planning in a mission-oriented Church that seeks to go out of itself and proclaim the Gospel.” 

2. Reflections of a Deacon's Daughter: [author's name redacted] recalls the formation and day-to-day life of a deacon and how the whole family supports her dad, Deacon [subject's name redacted].

3. Challenging Aspects of Ministry: We welcome your responses to our next feedback question: What aspect of your diaconal ministry do you find most challenging? We need your feedback (75 words or less) via [email address redacted]. Please include your name and the city and state where you live. Select responses will be in the November/December issue of The Deacon.

4. USCCB Congratulates Two Cardinals-Designate: Rejoicing in Pope Francis’ July 9 announcement of the creation of 21 new cardinals, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered congratulations to U.S.-born Archbishop Robert F. Prevost, who took the helm at the Dicastery for Bishops in April, and French Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States

5. Pope Appoints Hundreds to Attend the Synod of Bishops on Synodality: Pope Francis has appointed more than 450 participants, including dozens of religious men and women and laypeople from around the world, to attend the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in October.

6.  Around the Diaconate: 

Deacon [subject's name redacted] of [parish name redacted] in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, talks about the diocesan-sponsored bereavement ministry training.

The Fort Worth Report shares how two deacons, [name redacted] and [name redacted], are restoring a beloved Blessed Virgin Mary statue that had been vandalized at [parish name redacted] in Fort Worth, Texas. 

So here are my thoughts and comments:

First of all, I suppose not every magazine article is supposed to appeal to every reader.  Editors and publishers presumably understand that a wide variety of readers reads their publication for different reasons, so they attempt to target certain articles to certain groups of readers/subscribers.  Thus, there certainly are deacons (and priests, and laypersons) who find the doings of the institutional church endlessly fascinating, and would avidly read about an archbishop congratulating two other archbishops on becoming cardinals.  I am not one of those endlessly-fascinated people, despite occupying a small and undistinguished corner of the institution myself.  So that particular article, I probably would give a miss to.  Likewise, the article on planning the future of the diaconate would appeal to a person in a leadership role for the diaconate community: a Vicar of Deacons, or a Director of Diaconal Formation, or some such.  I fear I don't check those boxes, either.

Second, even within the rather smallish universe of deacon couples, all of us are at various stages.  The article about the daughter supporting her father in formation would have been a definite click-through for me some 23 or so years ago, when my wife and I were in formation and we were trying rather desperately to figure out a stable child care situation.  A quarter century later, I confess my interest in the topic has waned considerably, so I would pass on that one, too.

I'd be interested in reading an article on challenging aspects of diaconal ministry.  Goodness knows there are some.  But it turns out this isn't an article; it's a solicitation for us readers to supply our own content.  

I am sorry to say, most of these articles somehow missed my hot buttons, or pleasure centers, or whatever it is that induces me to read an article.  

I've been aware for many years that I am not a typical deacon.  Maybe it's because I'm left-handed, and the polarities of my brain are reversed, or however that works. When I was in formation, we all took the Myers-Briggs personality test.  As I recall, my particular personality type (ENTP, for those of you keeping score at home, although I think it has shifted somewhat over the years) is shared by only 2.4% of people.  I mention this because I don't wish this piece to read as though I'm criticizing the magazine or its content - although I fear it may be impossible to understand it any other way.  I'm sure it is a fine magazine for a lot of readers, and the people who bring it to life work very hard and are doing genuine service for the church.  I hope it finds readers who are enthusiastic about this kind of content, and it helps people in their ministry. 

But for whatever reason, I seem to have fallen through the cracks between those stories.  

I received a renewal notice in the mail yesterday.  I confess I recycled it.  I am sure they will send me others, and I may reconsider.

While I am confessing these sins (if they are sins), I admit I don't subscribe to our diocesan newspaper, either, for similar reasons: the content just doesn't grab me.

How do you decide what to read and what not to read?