He talked with his wife

A reader wrote to me. He said he’d admired my journalism for years and had always intended to buy my new book.

Then, on a walk with his wife, he showed her a LinkedIn post that a friend of mine¹ had written – which started a conversation that he’d needed to have with his wife for a while.

I was delighted to hear this. Publishing this book (about my breakdown, in case you didn’t know) has felt quite exposing. An outcome like that is the whole point.

I asked if I might share something of what he told me, anonymously. He said that would be fine.

“Thanks for writing the book. You’ve already helped.”

¹ A friend of mine. The LinkedIn post was by Terry Szuplat, who spent eight years writing speeches for Barack Obama. Terry and I met at a speechwriters’ conference. I’m grateful to him.