The Sunday Read

Thanks for checking out The Mayfly Letter! Here’s a sample - these issues are sent out to our list of readers every Sunday. You’ll see a page like this in your email inbox and can click the links to read articles directly.

Last Tuesday at my nephew's elementary school talent show, I watched a seven-year-old summarize the entire plot of "The Lord of the Rings" in exactly twelve seconds.

The audience sat stunned—not at his breathless efficiency, but because he'd somehow made Gandalf sound like he'd been inhaling helium since birth.

I later cornered this pint-sized narrative genius at one of those kid-sized lunch tables and asked for his secret.

"Adults talk too much," he whispered, then walked away, leaving me holding his sticky juicebox and the shattered remains of my literary ego. He wasn't wrong. How was this kid already so cool? Suddenly, I was left trying to push down memories of that old familiar sting of being in the chess club in high school.

In this issue, we're tackling two seemingly unrelated topics that very well might secretly run the world: telling a great, efficient story and the simple power of radical kindness.

"The Pigeon Wore a Beret" will teach you a method to create a simple arc that captivates any audience faster than it takes most people to clear their throat before speaking.

And "An Unsung Tool" explores how kindness might be our most underrated superpower since opposable thumbs – though significantly less useful for opening pickle jars.

John Conrad
Editor
The Mayfly Letter

The Pigeon Wore a Beret

How to tell a great story in ten seconds flat.

An Unsung Tool

A certain courteous kindness I’ve been seeing less of lately.

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Mayflies spend most of their life underwater, preparing for months for a short, single day above the surface as an adult.

In a similar way, centuries of wisdom from those who came before us can help us make the most of life, if we listen for it.

So that’s my task with The Mayfly Letter. I go searching for those golden nuggets of simple but effective life wisdom worth passing on to the next generation.

Then, of course, I patch a few of those ideas together into a couple laugh-out-loud funny reads that you actually want to open when the next issue shows up in your inbox.

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