The apple doesn't fall far from the real plastic tree. Hello again. I write to you on a Sunday evening in which I have done nothing except watch Young Royals the entire day (pretty good show as far as Netflix goes), as well as thinking about how I want to respond to a letter I was sent. There are many great things about letters. I haven't sent much in my life, compared to the average Civil War soldier circa 1862, or something like that. I did used to write them though, mostly to my Great Uncle out in San Francisco. He used to send me these brainiac puzzles and board games in the mail because I guess my family liked to rave about how clever I was. In addition to that, he would send letters that I would respond to. Its a really earnest thing that a lot of people simply don't have the time or patience to do. I forget how long it went on for but we stopped eventually and I kind of want to pick it up again. So here is my love letter to The Letter. I will excessively romanticize and idealize this concept until I have the perfect amount of motivation.
I was so eager to get my letter that I decided not to wait- I'll just write a page, front and back. I did this a few weeks ago now, so its not up to date on the current details of my life. Picture it as the main body of the message I will send- a starting point, but not the very main focus of the letter. I wanted to send random papers and sketches along as well, just these little things that you might want to keep in your desk or put on your wall. So I wrote a "mixtape" on a pink index card. Then I wrote some quotes from Howl by Allen Ginsberg and some facts about him.
Then- I finally got the letter. The envelope was so beautiful I just have to share-
A week or so later, I took advantage of the printers in the University Center to do print some random pictures, nice and bright and glossy. I cut each of them out. I wrote a little bit on the back of each one describing the image and why its relevant to me, or why I'm sending it. Its good to do things with intention but sometimes you just get a spontaneous idea and see where it can take you. A movie I watched, some interesting snippet of something I had to read for class, images I saved because I thought it was cool, a picture of me as a baby, and so on. I had to include book recommendations too of course. I wrote this whole thing about two books that I've read and a proposal for a book club. You always have to scatter some stickers in there too, the stickers are important. Its makes things feel more silly and exciting.
