The nice thing about going through a major life transition is that it provokes you to do a massive clean-up in all aspects of your life.Wallets get re-organized.
Email boxes get streamlined.
Underwear gets triaged and replaced.
Kitchen cupboards get emptied and repapered.
Much has been done so far in the great sweep of winter 2009. I even got new pajamas. But the most entertaining part of this process (other than the retail therapy) has been finding unsent letters. Two so far in the last week.
The one I found in my email account was written at the end of a relationship, and it described my non-negotiables for future boyfriends. The tone was firm, but a little sad too.
The second, found in my draft blog posts, is a long tirade written after another man told me that men find me intimidating because I'm smart. It's fairly accurate to say I was angry in that one. *ahem*
I won't divulge the contents of these unsent letters, after all they were written for cathartic purposes. They were never written to be read. I only scanned them myself. It seemed almost too personal. Like I was reading the private words of another woman.
Nonetheless, I didn't delete them. There's no chance that I'll ever publish them, but I figure they'll be good reminders if ever I need them.
So do you have unsent letters? Why are you holding on to them? What are they an important reminder of?
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5 comments:
I don't have any unsent letters, aside from any little letter-like notes written in my journals. This did remind me, however, that my brother is holding onto a letter for me--a letter I wrote to myself and asked him to hang onto for ten years. It has been five years since I wrote it, and by now I'd almost forgotten about it. I've forgotten what I wrote, at least. That'll be an interesting one to read, definitely like the words of another woman.
Interesting, these letters we write.
Oh my goodness I have loads of unsent letters. I think I have about 20 in my drafts folder. Like you said, even though I won't send them, and that moment that inpired the letters has passed, I still don't delete them. They record a place in my history that I sometimes need to look back on.
I love that I'm not the only one hoarding unsent letters! I find it to be a very important exercise for exorcising our tiny demons.
You wrote me an unsent letter, Dina?
Oooh, getting teary...
I write mine in journals, and then recycle/burn the journal when the underlying inspiration for the letter is resolved. Only once have I felt the need to retrieve one of those journals - not to reread the contents, but to add to them. The inspiration had not run its course.
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