Letters

Truthfully when I first signed up on Facebook, I was using as a tool. A tool to spy on see how my step-son DK was doing, who his friends were, etc… It also helped me stay connected to my brother P and my little brother JT. Now all of my siblings and my mom have a Facebook account, and most of my friends. In fact I can only think of 2 friends that I wish had a Facebook page. I still connect with these friends one through email and one the old-fashioned way….you know with paper, a writing instrument, and a stamp. My spelling is atrocious.


Thinking back, at different periods of time, I have had a friend that I have corresponded with through writing. Starting in middle school and through high school, my friend Amy and I had a notebook that we used to correspond. She would take it home and write a page, then give it to me, and I would do the same. I think I still have this notebook, tucked in a box at my parent’s house. We didn’t write sweet stuff to each other, basically the pages are filled with calling each other names like “stinky sloppy booger eater” we even illustrated the pages…..I wonder why we weren’t popular?

Later I corresponded with a man I had met during a summer theater production. In every show I’ve done, I have developed relationships with the cast. You spend every evening with them for months, and then when the show is over…you may not see them again. It was just so with Derek, but we wrote. I did not have a crush on him, as some had suggested, rather he was a genuinely nice guy. We wrote for, I don’t know, I couple of years. Then, as is often the way, we lost touch. The last written note from Derek was a Christmas card, the year he got married.

Later in college I wrote to a man in prison, don’t tell my parents, it was dumb. Really dumb. I don’t know what his crime was and after about 2 of his letters I stopped writing back. It was really dumb.

When D went off to basic training (again) and AIT (that’s Advanced Individual Training, for normal people) in 2004 we corresponded through letter. We had occasional phone calls, but mostly it was letters. I wrote to him every day for nearly a year keeping him up-to-date on baby L.

Now I am writing to a friend from Indiana. I saw her recently and suggested that she get on Facebook. She thinks it’s sad that people use Facebook to keep in touch with their family. But just the same, she doesn’t write or call. So I issued a challenge to her (and myself) that we write to each other. So far so good…..

Writing is personal, and it takes time. Sometimes these are things that are hard to, and sometimes impossible to share. So we have Facebook when you don’t have time to write, call, or visit the ones you care about.