finished my annual letter which i'll share with readers, most of whom are friends & family & who will get it in the mail anyway.



it's here. i realized a couple of things in the process of writing it, and printing the pictures (above), and sending them.

first, doing one's own is good in that you own the process, take the custom and do what you want with it, but at the same time people feel pressured on the other end; they're just buying cards maybe, or even, maybe they aren't, and don't like the pressure to do so. maybe they don't feel like supporting hallmark or whoever gets a fortune for the things they sell. so i don't always feel like it's worth it to pressure people who may not want to be pressured, even if my intention is only to stay in touch with them.

second, there's a heightened sensitivity about the mentioning of christmas- after all, i don't know for a fact how many of my friends actually celebrate it; sometimes they've gotten married, and i don't know their husbands, or wives; do i assume that they still celebrate it as a custom? maybe they do, maybe they don't. probably they won't say anything to me either way. again, i just want to stay in touch; i'm not used to facebook, though i can see that it has some advantages over this system. maybe some of these friends are on it? probably not. if they liked the letter-writing system (only some do), they were capable of keeping up; if not, they didn't.

as a letter-writer, i always try to keep to one page. just the facts. minimal drama. this year i realized after i wrote that iowa hung over the letter- i didn't mention it, because i had no personal experience with it. but i wrote about the power of nature, & earthquakes & such, and though our earthquake was minor....well, iowa had a terrible year. and i missed it, pretty much...saw the year go by, as one sees these pictures, out the front window, in the reflections off the street.

the weblog i put this on is one i use very rarely, so rarely that it changes its rules virtually every time i use it. i put my annual letters on it. i put other stuff on it. it has old links the likes of which i can hardly believe. i may use it for other stuff i've written; that was my intention, but i haven't been writing much. it's an interesting place, an outpost. i occasionally forget the address and have to go digging for it. a kind of out there blogger.