This book gave me a long pause. Who has haunted me enough to write a letter to him/her? The Polish neighbors from my childhood perhaps. The family whose language puzzled me and whose heritage I did not take the time to value. Maybe it would the student who showed up in every elective class I ever taught. He was a watcher - intense eyes. He seldom spoke. I cringed each time his name showed up on my class lists. He waited until the last day of his senior year to talk with me human to human telling me that he took all my classes because I was his favorite teacher. For sure I would write to college professor, Sister Salome. I would say "Salome, yes I know I break every writing rule you ever taught me. Yes, I still have a spelling handicap. But I would like to think that your wry smile appears each time I violate a rule, giving me permission to do so just as you did when I was a struggling undergraduate. One more yes...Yes I continue to 'celebrate the Oxford comma'".
Author Colleen Kinder put out a call for anyone wanting to write to a forgotten someone. She received thousands of funny, heartful, insightful, sad, and sometimes scary responses. Here are examples of what you will find:
From the back cover.....
Leslie Jamison
writes to the traveling magician in Nicaragua whose memory helped her stay sober
Ted Conover
addresses the frazzled backpacker he met at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania
Michelle Tea
recalls a bewitching girl she met in a Texas tattoo parlor
Julia Glass
wonders about the Italian stranger she rebuffed in Florence so many years ago
Peter Orner
addressed the chatty Floridian who interrupted his solitude at the edge of a New Hampshire lake
...on and on...the stories poke at our personal memories and perhaps prompt us to put pen to paper and write.
Who would you write to?
Please...continue to stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy.
Thanks for stopping by.
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