The Story About the Writing on the Wall
Weekend Reads 18.10.2025
When I was in elementary school, I got into trouble for reading in class. Mind you, I wasn’t reading my science book but instead used class time to devour whatever slim novel I had borrowed from the library. I’m guessing my teacher sent a note home about this, because I have a vivid memory of sitting down with my dad on our couch made of a material that felt like corduroy to discuss the situation.
He said something along the lines of, “I suppose I should be upset with you, but I’m not. You’re likely to learn more from books than from most classrooms.” (He wasn’t wrong about that.) He continued with a comment along the lines of, keep reading but maybe don’t be so obvious about it when you’re in class.
And so began my not-so-great habit of speed reading.
Speed reading was packaged to us students as a study aid, but I found this form of reading allowed me nearly but not completely tune out what was happening in class while happily skimming sentences in my Sweet Valley High book. Speed reading might have been handy in elementary school, but it wassn’t so helpful later in life when I was expected to digest textbooks or dense legal documents. I’ve found I must tackle the serious stuff with a pen in hand and more than one read-thru.
This is the style of reading I enlist on Monday evenings when I participate in a pretty intensive Bible Study. The study is intensive as it digs into the cultural norms and history playing out around the author of whichever book we are reading. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time over the past year studying kings and kingdoms – these are kings with names I’ve never heard of and have trouble pronouncing. It’s a study that requires underlining and paying close attention. No speed reading here!
This week, we read a story I have probably read a dozen times in my life. It’s the story of Daniel and King Belshazzar. The king’s father had conquered Daniel’s home country, and now Daniel was navigating life among people with a totally different language, culture, and religion. Amidst immense pressures to change, Daniel stayed true to his beliefs and observed his faith in the one true God while the kings ruled out of pride and fear.
One night, King Belshazzar decides to host a very fancy dinner. Normally this isn’t a remarkable event for royalty, but the nation was embroiled in a war, so the timing on this banquet was a bit, shall we say, tone deaf. King Belshazzar of course wants to impress his guests, and so he calls for golden and silver goblets that had been stolen from the holy temple when his father had invaded Daniel’s country. These were precious items, and this king was casually using them to flaunt his borrowed power.
God was not all that impressed that this king was so disrespectful, and so the story continues:
“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.”
(Spoiler alert: Daniel decodes the disturbing parlor trick.)
When I’ve read something multiple times, I tend to enlist that elementary school trick of speed reading. Maybe that’s why the penny didn’t drop for me until this week that this story is where the expression “The Writing on the Wall” comes from!
Honestly, how many times am I rushing about and consequently miss the point? So many! And it’s not just because I have a habit of speed reading. Sometimes I want to enjoy an experience so badly that I rush through it, avoiding the opportunity to truly absorb details and savor the moment.
I’m in a unique season at the moment, and I find I have fallen into the habit of running about despite my grand intentions to take things slowly. There’s something to be said for lingering and sitting in a moment of boredom. As I gear up for a new week, I’ve decided to slim down my schedule. Instead of loading up my to-do list, I am aiming to complete just three things a day and call that a win. Everything else will be a bonus.
Maybe by slowing down a bit, I’ll notice more writing on the wall.
When memories from fiction become a part of who you are.
An interesting history of London’s working class, the “Cockneys,” and the radical transformation of the city.
Here’s a wild idea: let’s book one of these oh-so-chic and very comfortable treehouses and watch the Northern Lights. Is a treehouse not your speed? There are loads of other remarkable places to stay under the Northern Lights in this comprehensive guide to Aurora Borealis from the clever people at Prior.
I stumbled across an essay about retirement that struck a chord even though I am not retired (#goals). Throughout my career, I’ve been surrounded by hyper-driven people. Their phones buzz constantly, and to them leaving at 6pm is “leaving work early.” When you’re consumed by work, what happens when you move into the post-work phase of life?
“Here’s what they don’t tell you about retirement: it’s designed for a world that no longer exists.
The retirement model was built in the 1950s when life expectancy was sixty-eight. You worked until sixty-five, enjoyed three years of rest, and died. Clean. Simple. Actuarially sound.
Except now we live thirty years longer.
Thirty years. That’s not a wind-down. That’s an entire second career. Another act. Possibly the most interesting one, if you don’t waste it watching daytime television and pretending you’re “done.”
But the system — pensions, healthcare, social expectations — still assumes you’ll vanish at sixty-five. It assumes you’ll stop mattering. Stop contributing. Stop having ideas worth hearing.
That assumption is the lie.
I spent forty years in a profession that demanded everything. Long hours, constant pressure, the usual corporate nonsense. I was good at it. Then I retired, and within six months, I’d become invisible.
Not literally, obviously. But professionally. Culturally. Economically. The world simply stopped asking what I thought.
And here’s the strange part: I still had things to say. Problems I could solve. Skills I’d spent decades refining. But retirement had declared me irrelevant, so I played along.” (Source)
I’ve seen references to this new line from Swedish Stockings on multiple fashion blogs, so I suppose this means we should expect to see lots of women in tights shaded in bright hues or adorned with tiger-stripes.
Tori Burch is having a massive sale.
Anthropologie is now carrying select items from Piglet in Bed, a U.K.-based luxury bedding company known for stripes and ginghams in bold colors. After several years of following the brand from afar, I’m looking forward to seeing items in a store near me soon.
Speaking of bold stripes, the new Loeffler Randall store in Nashville is adorned in stripes. Maybe bold stripes are a trend that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon?
It’s Advent calendar season. Here’s a pricey option full of silver jewelry, a treasure chest of makeup from Charlotte Tilbury, and perhaps the greatest of Advent calendars from Diptyque. (Amiright, D???)
Lately, I’m seeing lots of moody holiday wrapping paper. Usually I’d be all for a trend when it comes to gift presentation, but I’m just not feeling moody holidays for some reason. (Maybe because the entire world feels like it’s on edge?) Anyway, I went down a rabbit hole searching for wrapping paper that isn’t moody and doesn’t look like it came from a big box store, and I found these lovely designs from Lemon Park.
Everyone can tell if you are a serious person.
Mark Ronson, a.k.a. DJ extraordinaire, effortlessly cool guy about town, and son-in-law to Meryl Streep, has an autobiography?? Color me intrigued!
Hope this week is full of wonder for you.