After a week of gloomy rain, the sky finally cleared, and we met at a nearby park with something something green. It was Chinese National Tree Planting Day. We planted a few seeds of beautiful words in our minds.

A little boy had just gotten out of school and wandered into our gathering under a flowering tree in the park. He sat down quietly and listened to us talk, and to our surprise, he stayed there for a full twenty minutes. Nina and I were both thrilled by this adorable little superfan.

At that moment, I realized there was another layer of meaning to the Fallina Reading Club. We are influencing people, even if it’s just one person. And that alone feels like something worth living for.

I think Nina and I are the same kind of people. We both like sharing. We both actively create content on social media, simply enjoying the feeling of connecting with others. And hopefully, someday, we might even make a living doing the things we truly enjoy. Is that a dream too beautiful to be true? I don’t know yet. But I remain hopeful.

Catching Up with Wuthering Heights

We are almost done reading Wuthering Heights. Actually, I should say I’m the one who finally caught up. The weather was so miserable last week that I barely went outside. I spent a lot of time lying in bed reading the book. Nina finished it in about two weeks, and next week we’re going to watch the movie adaptation together.

After nearly seven weeks, we Fallina readers have finally finished the book as a team. Though, to be honest, a few Fallianna quietly dropped out along the way.

Why Does Heathcliff Hate His Own Son?

This week’s topic was fatherhood, more specifically, why Heathcliff hates his own blood. And it’s not as if he has many. Linton is his only son.

Nina had an interesting thought. Linton doesn’t look like Heathcliff at all. He resembles Isabella more, and Heathcliff despised both her and Edgar Linton, the man who married Catherine, the love of his life. Perhaps Heathcliff simply cannot see anything of himself in the boy.

I feel sorry for young Linton. He doesn’t have to work for a living like Hareton does, but his life is far more miserable because of illness and the cruelty of his father. I know he will soon die in the coming chapters, and strangely enough, I almost feel relieved for him.

But people are hardwired to survive, no matter how miserable the circumstances are. Linton has to obey his father and meet Catherine out in the wild, even though his only wish is probably to go back indoors and rest.

Time Spent or Time Invested

My own thought about how a father could despise his own child is that perhaps he was never truly involved during the pregnancy and never spent enough time with the child afterward.

I think many people feel that their own children are more adorable than anyone else’s, even though we all know that can’t objectively be true. Maybe the real reason is that parents watch their children grow day by day. They build countless memories and connections together.

But then why do some couples, maybe most couples, grow to resent each other over time? The more years they spend together, the more distance appears. Don’t they spend enough time together? But husbands secretly think other women are more attractive than their own wives, and wives may feel the same about other men.

So perhaps it’s not about time spent, but time invested.

We invest time in nurturing our children. But with our spouses, we often just let the time pass while scrolling on our phones. People are, in general, selfish. We love someone because we see something valuable in them for ourselves, whether it’s the time we’ve invested or the hope we’ve planted.

Love may be a fallacy. But parenthood, to me, is a responsibility. Don’t bring a child into the world if you’re not ready to carry that responsibility.

Why We Meet

Last week we talked about motherhood. This week we talked about fatherhood. Of course, a book like Wuthering Heights has far more to discuss. But a reading club isn’t an academic class. We can’t possibly explore every theme or dive deeply into each one.

Still, every week when I meet with Nina, I hear a voice different from my own. That single voice, however, echoes outward, stirring countless other voices within me, expanding the way I think and see the world, reminding me that even in this vast world, human voices can reach across unseen connections.

We don’t meet just to discuss specific topics. We meet to share a kind of inspiration that only genuine readers can receive. It’s a cozy feeling, like a gentle breeze carrying warmth back to us under the sunshine. I believe you might feel it someday when you start reading with Fallina. It won’t be a life-changing event. But it will surely light up your day each time we meet.

Thanks for reading. And you’re always welcome to read with Fallina sometime soon.