Sunday, February 28, 2016

Big YOUCH! from a short letter



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Coming across a couple key letters in life, found in strange places around the computer studio.  First, a copy of the 02/14/61 letter Mom wrote to The Rick, then a short letter to Mom from Mim, written on the tissue-thin paper my sister loved.  Dated February 13, 1967 & written from the University of Houston, which Mim attended for a brief time, it talked about letters she'd received (Mim was always the great letter writer I've never been), going to see a performance of The Marriage of Figaro, and news about her classes.

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And the fact that she invested $2 every Monday in the rental of a teeny tv to watch Big Valley, so she "could keep open communication with Elsa."

First saw that letter about 10 years ago.  Every time I read that short paragraph in a short letter, am still amazed.  In the midst of a brief letter touching on philosophy, poli sci, economics & more, was tucked the illuminating nugget that Mim considered her baby sister such a dullard, the only thing we could communicate about was a television show.  


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The sad thing is that might very well have been true.  Oh, not that I was such a hopeless dullard, but that - for reasons I never fathomed  - our conversation was best limited to things as basic & unchallenging as tv shows, long ago memories, classic movies.  Nothing personal, nothing deep, nothing nothing nothing revealing.  

Yes, it was a big YOUCH!, but it was also one of the biggest reveals of my life.  And with revelation came a sense of Ah ha! relief that the inkling I'd had all my life was simply the truth.   

Ten years ago - all I have to do is see that little bit of writing paper & I smile all over again.  The chasm between us might have been due to our conflicting natures, nothing more.  Sweet relief! 


  

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