海角大神

Stories go viral, to use an old term that鈥檚 less appealing by the week, for different reasons. Big events leave people hungry for hot takes. There鈥檚 celebrity news. Oddly evocative news.听

We recently watched a Monitor essay by the wonderful Murr Brewster ring up 780,000 page views in its first week online. That鈥檚 a very eye-catching number for us.

Maybe you read Murr鈥檚 first-person story聽about a skilled fence builder she鈥檇 coaxed out of retirement with a job he saw as being too hard for anyone else to do right. 鈥淎 simple piece,鈥� Murr says.

It鈥檚 also great storytelling. A chunk of its reach came via Google Discover, which 鈥渟earches the web for ... engaging and interesting content ... likely to provide a good user experience.鈥� Murr chortles at that during a call from her home in the Pacific Northwest.听

鈥淭hat鈥檚 me,鈥� she crows. 鈥淚鈥檓 a 鈥榗ontent provider鈥�!鈥�

Besides the numbers, the biggest for Murr since her story about knitting rippled through a community of hobbyists, her essay brought heartfelt responses. Murr cites an email in which a grateful reader went on for 1,300 words 鈥渁bout how important it was to do a good job at a fair price, and how nobody does that anymore.鈥�

Had she tapped into a universal interest in integrity?

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 set out to highlight that,鈥澛爏ays Murr, 鈥渂ut that is absolutely the theme.鈥澛犅�

Readers asked Murr for fence builder recommendations. For a follow-up on how to build a fence properly. Some already had what they needed. One comment to the Monitor: 鈥淚t is a pleasure, in this world of self-destruction and evil, to read a nice story about a nice man.鈥�

鈥淧erspective and joy show up in an awful lot of my pieces,鈥� says Murr. 鈥淧eople are engineering distrust, and we鈥檙e all suffering for it. A little joy and a little hope is good for them.鈥�