Best line: No. 1: ”I cannot see what I have gone through until I write it down. I am blind without a pencil.” No. 2: “I am convinced that you must write as if no one were ever going to see it. Write it all, as personally and specifically as you can, as deeply and honestly as you can. … In fact, I think it is the only true way to reach the universal, through the knot-hole of the personal. So do, do go ahead and write it as it boils up: the hot lava from the unconscious. Don’t stop to observe, criticize, or be ‘ironic.’ Just write it, like a letter, without rereading. Later, one can decide what to do.”
via ‘Against Wind and Tide’ – The Double Life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh « One-Minute Book Reviews.
The quote above contains excellent advice for all poets and writers.
Reading this review made me wish I had lived before instant communication, when people wrote letters, lots of letters. My mom and her older sister wrote weekly to each other and saved and reread favorite letters. The letters could be passed on to their children. How cool would that be? But it doesn’t happen today. We are missing out.
What stops you from writing a letter or letters, to someone you know will reply in kind?
A Scottish friend of mine and I thought of single-handedly resurrecting the art of letter writing. First by doing it ourselves, with each other.
That sounds like a good idea. Start small and gradually widen the circle. Thanks.
Uplifting, spirit infusing article. Thanks
You’re welcome. I liked it too.
I miss letters, too! I treat my blog sort of like an open letter to whoever might drop by, but the glorious feel of good stationary and a nice pen.
Yes, I write everything longhand first and then type it. The feel of writing works for me.
Yes, I agree. The lost art of letter-writing. It’s a real shame we no longer do this – I can recall the sense of joy from years ago when I’d receive something in the post from friends or family. And I still have lots of those letters now – very personal, they mean a lot.
Also, my grandmother (who is now 97) kept all her letters from my grandfather when he was in the war, and then later incarcerated in a Japanese concentration camp. They are an incredible testimony to what they went through – it’s most humbling to open them and read through them.
Yes, a family treasure to be shared and handed on to the next generation. We don’t have that these days. You should write a memoir.
I have started one actually, Thomas – but it opens with my great-grandparents in the lead-up to WW1….so much death and destruction in their past.
We (today) don’t know life in the same way at all – we’re very lucky in comparison.