Letters

As I grew into my 30's and 40's, I would be impressed with women I knew who continued to correspond with friends from college or from even earlier in life. I don't know men who do so, which may not be a fair basis to generalize. But the virtues implicit in correspondence always struck me as virtues of a passing age, friendship, honesty, an air of permanence through fluctuating environments, a wish to communicate, making one's self known, while supporting the other through informed affection, and, not least, having a command of the language and adequate penmanship. Not that I got to read the ladies' correspondence. That was just what I sensed and revered

I would have thought a good letter should read like a mini-essay, crafted, and have a point or make an observation. The year's chronology tucked into a Christmas card, while informative, did not qualify. On the contrary, the brief history dissipates the air of permanence, or should I have said timelessness?

I suppose this gentle envy and nostalgia were what led me to post to a blog page. My posts are often rambunctious, lacking in gentility and refined thought, but still I am corresponding, (and circumventing the penmanship requirement). Why haven't I posted lately? I guess, because I felt I had expressed all my opinions, and was becoming strident in my insistence on my point of view prevailing.

But because I stopped coming here, I stopped visiting other's sites. This evening I read three months worth of daughter Kim's blogs, and enjoyed her style and content, including etchings and photos and the in the moment accounts of life far away. I felt a little bad not to have been more attentive. I suppose I could simply resolve to come to read more often, but that would violate the time honored first tenet of corresponding. To get a letter, send a letter. I guess, I'll resume posting.