The pen is a dangerous thing. With one flick of a wayward Bic, you can leave indelible evidence of your wisdom or produce an unwanted record of your ignorance. With one stroke, you can enlighten a day or usher in storm clouds of contention.
Either way, I have a pen in my hand today. I decided to take the age-old advice to start writing letters to the people in my life. Some letters represent hopes of squashing old hurts. Some letters signify my need to express love to somebody I may have neglected over the years.
Of course these letters will never see the blue-uniformed image of a US mailman. Time and circumstance may change the way I see things. A penned letter may become permanent (perhaps damaging) evidence of an old thought kept mercilessly alive in somebody's underwear drawer.
So I’ll send them in my mind… all returned to sender for Insufficient Postage.
I suspect this series will feature a multitude of tears, fears, and cheers as forgotten memories begin flooding the pages. Names will be changed to protect the guilty and the innocent. But I’m sure if anybody knew to find me here, they’d also recognize themselves in my growing pile of returned mail.
Won’t you join me over the next several weeks?
7 comments:
I will try to follow... don't have a reliable connection to log on, so we will see.
Don't know if writing letters unsent will change feelings. One of the new age kind of things I don't get... closure... but I hope it works for you...
Hey Mark!
Thankfully, I'm not looking to to get self-help through blogging and change feelings. lol Since this is essentially a relationship blog, I suspect the letters will reveal the issues (positive and negative) that undermine relationships.
I am more interested in opening a dialog between me and my readers that reveals the "rights and wrongs" we may play-out in our relationships.
"Therapy through comments" would be icing on that cake. hehe
Note: Some of the best comments may be published as posts to keep the discussion going.
READERS: Let me know if you don't want your comment given credit and shared as a post. :-)
We are kindred souls in the yielding to errant meanderings of fingers on a keyboard. I, too, have a tendency to write letters with no intention of them ever making their words transfer from the white screen to white paper and find themselves journeying to the zip code of the person to whom the letter relates. It's funny how we do that, but often more than necessary as we know how easily words can hurt, be misread, or simply disregarded in an effort to force the very hand that wrote them to now transfer to the mouth that may not adequately convey their intent.
Anyhoo, I hope to travel this journey with you to the virtual zip code.
Side note, I have taken words from white screen to white paper and they made their real life journey to the 33065 Fl zip code. I will blog of it's ultimate response.
I cannot WAIT to hear what happened when your letter arrived in Fla! Lawd knows the Thai and wine may not come fast enough.
Why does my schedule look like road kill? hmph.
I love the art of epistle. :) And, of course, the inescapable mystery of the human response; as you write,
"The pen is a dangerous thing. With one flick of a wayward Bic, you can leave indelible evidence of your wisdom or produce an unwanted record of your ignorance. With one stroke, you can enlighten a day or usher in storm clouds of contention."
Well said. I'll be following.
Welcome dedalus!
Glad to have you here. :-)
I just moments, I will post a 4-part series on Daughters of Emotionally Abusive Mothers. I have a 4-page Word document that I will break into parts, post all at once here... but have each post set to upload a few days apart.
Had to go back to catch up... was looking to see if you confirmed what I divined from you convo from your Mom's about your appearance!
:0)
This is of considerable interest because black women and their relationships with their Mom's are often conflicted, in the best of situations. Men related to one another differently and express their emotions in outlets that are healthy or unhealthy. But I think women sit and brood over their relationships with their Moms and it can become corrosive and eat away at the linings of their heart.
I am going to make a SPECIAL effort to keep up... for real.
L&R
Mark
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