Try writing down everything that you find meaningful in life. Try doing it in four or five pages.
This is the project Mark Taylor, the chair of Columbia’s religion department, set for himself in 2006. After surviving septic shock and cancer surgery in the space of one year, Taylor felt a need to chronicle his thoughts. “I’d done enough research,” he explains.
The result of his exercise is “Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on Living and Dying.” Though the final book weighs in at over 290 pages, Taylor’s goal of brevity is not unfulfilled.
