I sent out a letter today. To a friend of many years. At the top of the page was a new to him, well in the form of a personal letter, heading.
It read:
2021-02-04 Portland, Oregon Royal KMM
Because yesterday I did not write to the OTP place. I started and then paused and never returned to it. Today there was a letter to be written and quickly also – the postman was soon to be here gathering up the things to pass along. A postcard to a niece in Boston, a letter to a woman learning English in Brasil, a man with varied interests in Perth Australia. (She lives in Brasil and is learning English, not that she went there to learn English…) I dived in and told him a few things of no great consequence. The important part was writing.
Writing in the USA allows you to keep in touch with someone for 55¢ And don’t you love it? There is not much you can buy for 55¢ I actually quite like typing it, 55¢ such economy of expression. But that and an envelope or cleverly folded paper and it will be taken away from your house and delivered to your friend. Delivered in two days of working time. Well, that was what it was like before Covid and the last people running the show under the prior “leadership” Yeah, two days to someone down the road in Oregon or across the mountains in Colorado or deep into Arkansas.
If the person you wrote to was diligent or a writer you might receive a reply into your mailbox by the end of the week. Or you can be a procrastinating laggard like me and they would not receive a reply for a couple of months. Because the reply is just that – a response from whoever you had written to and what it took time for them to write you back.
Of course, it is not like nowadays with computers and internet connection that allows you to ask a question and get a reply in a few minutes. Or even the One Typed Page group, where we have some kinds of conversation going on here, you can receive a reply in a day or two. But ahem, we are doing these One Typed Pages to slow down our writing and return to this method. (What am I thinking? Think about that and say something
that fits.)
Until I think again. Well, wait.
How long does it take you to write something to someone? I think it takes me a half-hour for a not too well thought out page of text. I know that it takes me about 12 to 16 minutes to fill a composition book page. Those are “keep writing, keep the pen moving” kind of writing Were people faster back in the days when those were the most advanced ways of filling a page? Then again, did they think while typing or transcribe something they had already written in pencil? Can’t waste those valuable pages of typing now, can we?
More thought required,
— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm