A Napoleonic Quest

I want to beat Napoleon. Over 40,000 published letters and dispatches are credited to him. I LOVE writing letters, and I LOVE receiving them! I have been this way since the day I asked my mom if I could have one of the envelopes she took out of the mailbox.

"You want to pay the the bill?" she asked.

"No! I want a letter!"

She said there were no letters in the mailbox. If I wanted a letter, then I would have to write one. I think I was in third grade, a ripe time for me to learn how to compose a coherent letter. Who would I write a letter to? I started with my favorite aunt and uncle, who lived about 10 minutes away. And why not? I only saw them just about every week!

Not only do I love writing and receiving letters--I also save them. Most of them. But I'll get to that later. My Aunt L wrote the majority of the letters to me, while I was growing up, even though she signed the letters from both her and my Uncle T. She typed many of her letters on her manual typewriter. And she never talked down to me in her letters, she spoke to me as if she were right there--telling me of her recent activities, including golf (which I knew nor cared nothing about), or attending a bridge party, or describing in detail a fantastic meal she cooked that evening. She wrote as if she were talking to a friend.

She and my uncle traveled much of the world after they retired, and I have all of their postcards in their thick letter file. After she passed away, my uncle continued--and continues, to write to me. He's 96, now! Their letter file in my collection of letter files is one of the thickest I have: 34 years worth of correspondence.

After I began to write to my aunt and uncle, I targeted my cousin in Minnesota, next. I wrote letter after letter after letter to her...until she wrote me back. Over the years, I wrote letters to other cousins far away, my Uncle T's grandniece, my great Uncle G, and briefly to a little girl in New Zealand.

New Zealand? Yes! I love learning about people in other countries! I loved watching "The Big Blue Marble" on TV, after school. Or maybe it was on Saturday afternoons, after cartoons? A true geography show for a geography nut like me. It was fun writing back and forth, while it lasted.

When I got older, most of my letters were sent to friends, less often to relatives. Nowadays, it's email. Email is so convenient, quick, and easy! I must be old-fashioned that way: it's always nice to have a tangible letter in my hands...to keep and cherish. With email, I click and put it in mail files within seconds. With letters on paper, they pile up for a year or more until I file them away!

Like today.

At what point do I save or throw away letters--especially from those I don't hear from anymore? I have thousands of letters (if you include my emails floating in a file somewhere). Some of my longtime friends' files have 25 years worth of letters in them, give or take a year. Some are small bundles that I didn't organize into a file: from childhood encounters with friends from other countries, and from penpals I never met in person, as an adult.

I have one big box and one smaller box. I save every little scrap of paper--especially from family members, on both sides. A note with a check to get a new bike, from mil (mother in-law). A note from my mom enclosed in a care package--telling me how to prepare this vegetable or that vegetable for dinner. Yes! I save every little scrap of paper with loving or non-loving words from family!

My sister remains the most prolific writer--I've saved everything with her words on it. Even just a post-it note. This includes her emails, which I don't print out, but which are saved somewhere in a computer file. I have over 700 of her emails in one file folder! I don't think anyone will catch up with her, when it comes to my entire collection! Aunt L and Uncle T come pretty close in the paper domain, since they've never emailed. And a couple of longtime friends are up there, too. But sis...she takes the cake.:-)

This afternoon I did something painful: I threw out about 30 letters and cards from a short term penpal. We wrote for maybe eight years, on and off. This was a case where the old-fashioned letter-writing didn't quite hold. When I moved to the east coast nearly 13 years ago from the west coast, I was really lonely. Didn't know anyone except my in-laws. And even at that time, I didn't know them that well.

Hubby set me up on the computer, on a usenet group, where I could put an ad for penpals. I got about seven new friends in one day! All but one of whom I still correspond with by email to this day. And I even met two of them: one from Denmark and one from Portugal . I got one more, some months later, from Sweden, whom I also still correspond with. Of the original seven, one wanted to write the old-fashioned way, and I was happy to oblige.

We never met in person. What we had in common were interracial marriages, and we shared stories with each other. But our letters became less and less frequent over time, until it died out two Christmases ago. SO! Today, while filing my letters--and getting frustrated with less space in my box, I managed to pull out this person's letter bundle out (w/o knowing it was hers) and stared at it for a moment. I haven't heard from you for a long time, I thought. Then I dumped it in the wastebasket, without a second thought! I've only done that to a few people in my life!

What did they ever do to me to cause me to dump them? Nothing. Literally. They quit writing! Do I want to write to a brick wall? Of course not. I looked into my other bundles and wondered why I hadn't thrown them out, either? Why? Because they're from other countries.

I'm biased! Omigosh!%-0

"You're biased!" my hubby laughed at me. "There is no rhyme or reason to your dumping this person's letters instead of someone else's!"

The ones from different countries are more interesting, I said! No method to my madness!

I did not meet those other people either; just because they're from another part of the world warrants my keeping their letters?

I don't know. Some people just write better than other people. Even if their English isn't as good as an English-speaking person's. Their warmth comes through, even if I've never met them. Their letters are more interesting to read...therefore I'm saving 'em!

I don't know if any of my friends keep my letters or not. I know my friends in Turkey do: they showed them to me when I visited them! I was flattered--and shocked, given their limited living space. But I was happy to learn that I wasn't the only person who hoarded letters from friends!;-)

So how can I beat Napoleon if I don't even know if my letters will be saved for posterity?

It doesn't matter! It's the spirit of letter-writing that counts. So what if I never become famous (though that could be interesting!)? I'll be content to know that when I leave this world, I will have been as prolific a writer as Napoleon...on my terms.;-D

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Happy Valentine's Day! In the spirit of this icy winter storm and V-day combination, let me share a poem with you:

Oh Lift Me!

Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love and kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast: ~
Oh! Press it to thine own again,
Where it will break at last.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
1702-1822