Letter Writing

Letter writing is a lost art. Back in times gone past, people could only communciate through hand written letters that took a long time to be delivered. So they would write pithy, well thought out missives, full of life observations and interesting tidbits. Now we tweet. Or send texts. Being a hoarder at heart, most electronic messaging doesn't thrill me too much. Nothing tangible and tactile there.

Sure, with electronic messaging, it is easy to include a picture or a video. And writing is easier since you don't have to look for a stamp and an envelope. But how will my posthumous epistles be published if they are only electrons scattered on the solar wind? Hmm?

So, my plan is to write to each and every one of my Facebook friends in the next couple of weeks. I do understand that some of my FB friends aren't active on Facebook. And that some aren't friends. So I don't expect 100% reply. I would like 100% reply. But I don't expect it. I expect about 25% reply. And, being me, I plan on making a spreadsheet to track the whole process. I want to be sure that I touch everyone and I would like to see what the tangible results are.

Also, I plan to do some culling - get rid of people who I don't really need as Facebook friends. I do so hate giving up on people, but sometimes that is the best course of action.

After that, I might go through my email address book and write to people there - though that is a more daunting prospect - mainly because I don't know how many people there are on that list.

I do plan on doing a little bit of copying an pasting. Part of the reason for this reaching out is to soft sell Diary of a Plate Addict (and Bar Dreams). That part, I will probably cut and paste. And I might cut and paste a bit about what has happened in the past year. Mostly, though, I want to write personal notes. We shall see how this all works out. It is already 11:22 am here in Geneva and I haven't written one note yet. But I have written this blog post about writing the notes, so that's a start!