Art of Letters Part 2 - Written July 11th

This is, in fact, about blogging. And what a horrible blogger I've been. When I embarked on this journey to write a letter a day (which I've done now for over a month, just 10 and change to go-) I thought, "This'll be interesting and fluid and full of discovery and oh, how I'll want to write about it." Well, though it has proven to elicit many wonderful curiosities of my heart that might never have otherwise surfaced, let's just say my enthusiasm for the project goes in waves.

Before I blather on, let me begin with the honorable mentions: My dear friend NINA FRENKEL was the first to write me back. She waited for whim and fancy and sent it my way. We covered primarily, questions of 'the name'. ie: Does one live INTO the name they've been given or is there some other relationship? We also considered those who rebel somewhat against their name. Like a devilish Angelica or a super-scientific Faith. Of course, for the regular namey-names like Erika, for example, that one COULD interpret, what with the K and all - to be kind of HARD. Good thing I'm all silly-putty on the inside.

KNIGHT BERMAN of the Marble Tea - also wrote an awesome letter. This is a musing and musical man, folks, a delight of a person to hang out in the same room with, or on paper. He and I have expanded and contracted our circles of thought together numerous times until we're either in the stars or talking molecular structure. (We don't know much about either, as it turns out, but we go with it.)

Even with consistent output on my my end, I still fail to receive very many letters back or even much acknowledgment of the letters I've written. My friend BEN (bencramer.org - not dot com, who is a Dutch pornstar, we discovered...) said he read someone's opinion that it is rude to write letters, as it makes the recipient feel they've got to write back. To this I say GET OVER IT. Is that my problem? Your insistence that you must write back, whether I care or not, makes ME rude? (Not putting this on Ben, though I have been known in the past to kill the messenger.)

Ben sent me back something pretty dang exciting - an ink-pad, stamps of the various letters of the alphabet, numbers 0-9, along with some stamp icons such as hearts and balls. (I'm still not sure what to do with the ball.) What an inspirational tool just when I needed something to get excited about! I thanked him for all the letters he sent me in response to my two. (Yes, I wrote him twice.)

Which brings me to the next topic (I haven't written about this in all too long so I'm trying to get it all in here...) which is, it's so interesting to realize to whom you want to write on a given day. And the recipient determines the tone and content of the letter. Some people just draw out different parts of you. Sure, we know this, but writing a letter every day makes you REALLY know it.

Rule #1 of this game - wait until it's totally obvious to whom you should write. It really does get revealed daily.

Rule #2 - you can repeat. It's a whole year, so you've got to go with inspiration in whatever form it arrives.

Rule #3 - You don't have to SEND all your letters. For example, I wrote to my favorite poet, James Tate and sounded like an 8 year old asking for an autographed picture. Actually, it wasn't even that interesting. I was tired, okay? I didn't send it.

My friend Jenny-Sue gets a lot of letters. As a matter of fact, she's my leading 'lazy fallback'. I can tell her anything, show her any mood, so she bears the brunt of my late night 'about to fall asleep and haven't done this yet' throw-away letters. I don't send her all of those, either. But she gets an honorable mention as well just for being her and providing me the downy mattress that she is.

My most major of realizations is that merely taking on a task of writing a letter a day is really not enough. You can't live your life with no time, chock full - and have this work or be fun in any way. You have to make time for allow for the whimsical nature of letter-writing to take over. So it's not just about getting it done daily - and believe me, I've treated it that way some days. It's really only satisfying on the days when I allow that time, dedicate half an hour to writing my letter, allowing the flexible time in my life that satisfaction from such an event requires. Then it's excitement all over again. Aaaah, letters. May I never write another.

More soon, and thanks for reading.