What I learned this week...

Years ago, a wise man taught me a little trick. It had to do with writing a letter that you would never mail.  I've written a few over the years since.  It has a weird way of clearing the mind and laying toxic situations to rest when there is really no other way to address them.

Yesterday, I wrote a letter that filled a notebook page.   It was about situations that had presented themselves over the past week, and what I had learned from them.  It was not pretty.  It was full of some very negative things.  In the end, it was about how choosing to live by the Golden Rule is full of risk in this day and age.

It is such a simple rule.  I don't think I can or want to give up on it.  If I have to write a letter every week that I will never mail, then so be it. 

Setting the record straight.

First thing this morning, a certain eldest child of mine e-mailed me, winking smiley-face in tow, to gently chastise me for saying that my blogging was the fault of my children. Ah...must have been a poor choice of words right off the bat!
Let's say that they helped lead me to it. So much talk about My Space, and then Facebook, and then lots of parents getting on Facebook, and now everyone Twittering about. What a revolution in personal communication! So it's all about trying something different. Since I tend to get reflective when I'm writing, might as well blog. Not the fault of the kids, just about learning the technology in order to keep up communication. Also makes it easier to keep up with lots of other fun people!
For many, many years, my mother's family had a "round robin" letter which followed a route from family member to family member from East Coast to West Coast. When it came, there was great rejoicing to look at new pictures and once again try to decipher Uncle Hal's handwriting. All of the women's handwriting was beautiful because practically all were teachers. The letter was fat and always required multiple stamps, and took two months or so to make the loop back around. She kept every one of the letters she ever wrote, so we have a wealth of family history and crazy stories and philosophy. How are we going to record that for the next generations...