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Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we鈥檝e always been transparent about that.
The church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we鈥檝e aimed 鈥渢o injure no man, but to bless all mankind,鈥� as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.
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Explore values journalism About us
Something we can agree on
Trudy Palmer
Good news: People value people. In a survey of 17 鈥渁dvanced economies鈥� conducted in the first half of 2021, Pew Research Center asked nearly 19,000 adults what in their lives they 鈥�.鈥澛�
In all but three countries, the first response was family, defined broadly to include a wide range of relatives. In Spain, South Korea, and Taiwan, family wasn鈥檛 the first answer, but it ranked in the top five.
And that鈥檚 not the only time people surfaced as a key source of meaning and fulfillment. Friends and community members ranked among the top five responses in 12 of the 17 countries.
Survey-takers noted many other meaningful aspects of life, of course: career, material well-being, nature, health, service, and so on, but Pew describes the most prevalent responses as 鈥渇inding meaning in others.鈥�
Call me naive, but I find it reassuring that people value people so highly. That鈥檚 a firm foundation from which to expand our sense of family beyond bloodlines and extend friendship to those who don鈥檛 look 鈥� or vote 鈥� like us.
For me, the line between family and friends is often blurry. I have friends who鈥檝e been my family for decades now, though there鈥檚 not a drop of common blood between us. And I have family members 鈥� like my daughter 鈥� who are close friends.
My plan for 2022? Blur that line with more people more often.
