I guess the ol' hurricane brought a little cold front through Kansas last night...I felt it blowing in when I went for my run last night ( only my second one since getting to Kansas...what happened to my whole "dedicated to fitness" plan?! )...and it felt fabulous! Its about 62 degrees right now and it looks like it might rain. Thus is my life. Talking about the weather.
BUT! I actually have other things to tell you about! That's right! Yesterday, I finally got my butt down to the Senior Center and I am now officially a Meals-on-Wheels volunteer. There was a quick moment when they thought i was there for community service...hahaha! Sadly, it seems people my age only 'volunteer' when they've gotten in trouble with the law :-( But, once that was sorted out I talked to the lady that runs meals on wheels for about an hour...they only needed help on Thursdays and Fridays-which means my week is still ridiculously empty. I'm currently praying about whether I need to find some other volunteer work, or exactly what I should be focusing my time on. I think whatever happens I need to be doing things intentionally...so even if I end up just writing numerous blogs a day...I feel like I should at least look for direction before doing that, right? I just don't want to look back on this time in Kansas and be sorry that I didn't use the time here more wisely.
I have been thinking a lot about correspondence lately. Like I said in my last blog, I am now reading the letter's of Theodore Roosevelt to his children and I find it dreadfully fascinating. I am also saddened that there are not more letters out and about. I mean, sure we could all say that now letters have turned into emails-but when was the last time you got consistent detailed, anticdotal emails from a person? I think the only friend I have who has mastered this completely is Tabitha. In this day in age we've gotten our emails down to a few sentences that get straight to the point, or we send a text message or at the very most we leave a voice mail. Anyway, I was thinking about this...and I decided it was that people have stopped reading. I know that sounds really silly, but its TRUE! Letter's use to not just be about finding out information about your friends and family, but as you were writing them you KNEW that the person receiving that letter would be looking to that letter, not television, DVDs, or the internet, but YOUR letter for the evenings entertainment. I think it made everyone a little bit better at writing. I mean, if you thought of your friends and family as people that you should maybe entertain, or at the very least keep apprised of your life...well, I think it would change the way you corresponded with them.
Anyway, I know it would make me better as a writer. This week I've received several wonderful "newsy emails" as I call them...with each of these emails the distinguishing factors were that they told me details of their everyday life...the things that wouldn't necessarily make the six o'clock news...but believe me, those emails were far, far better than anything on TV right now!
2 comments:
I just had to respond to your blog, Abbey, and say you are completely correct in what you say about letter writing/emails. I'm old fashioned enough to still ensure my emails are long, newsy, descriptive, proof-read and written as though the recipient is sitting opposite me and listening to what I am saying. I have to confess my text messages are the same. Writing and reading for pleasure is at risk of becoming a dying art unfortunately. For the record, I check and read your blog everyday, Abbey, so keep it up.
Jenny Woolley
Oh man, I'm totally going to have to edit my writing more now, which can only be good for the recipents and myself. Just don't take the email I just sent as representative of my new and improved work. Lol. Blogging does the same thing I suspect, as you are fantastic.
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