What The Christian Science Monitor Means to Me March 31, 2014 Issue

Speaking highly of the Monitor

Margaret Wylie

The Christian Science Monitor came into my life when I was a teenager and my dad subscribed to the then daily print edition. I have been forever grateful that a Christian Science practitioner pointed out to my dad the importance of this paper and he immediately subscribed, even though financial circumstances at that point would have said he could not afford it.

This set the tone for me and so the Monitor became a daily companion in my adulthood. My husband was in the military, and for a number of years we lived in many different places. Regardless of our location, to have the Monitor coming in the mail was like a special ingredient that made each new place feel like home.

I had an experience that showed me firsthand the value of the Monitor. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, we were living in England. It was a terrible shock, and it seemed doubly so since we were out of our own country. I thought it would have been easier to bear if we had been home in the United States. Of course, there was great sympathy from the local people, but it didn’t feel the same to me. The news was just filled with this tragic event, and I felt all caught up in grief and dismay. Then after a few days, the Monitor arrived, and the moment I picked up that paper and began to read, I felt my peace returning. The Monitor did not sugarcoat what had happened but reported it without sensationalism. It was clear to me then how important the Monitor is and that “the object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind” (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). And I could feel that underlying basis from which the news was reported.