December 11, 2007
Tuesday
“We miss you! What’s new?”
             — subject line of an e-mail received this morning
I saw the subject line when I booted up this morning, well before dawn and before coffee. Wow, somebody misses me? Somebody who doesn’t know what’s new?
The message was from the alumni association of my undergraduate university. “Have you gotten married?” they asked. “Had a child? Found a new employer or furthered your education? Written a book? Given a lecture? Been on television? Whatever you’ve been up to, we want to know!”
What a salutation! It’s almost a direct request for an example of that much-maligned December genre, the year-end holiday letter.
I’ve sent one of those most years since the early 90s. I skipped 1995, for reasons I can’t remember, and last year, for reasons I cannot guess. I usually start writing the letter the week after my party (which would be happening this coming Sunday if things were “normal” this year) and mail it on the Feast of Stephen (December 26). I thought about writing it while I was at Jentel and mailing it before I leave, so I could begin with “Greetings from Wyoming!”, but I really did not have the time, not even for the writing, let alone the printing, folding, and addressing.
Readers of this space know what I’ve been up to. I haven’t exactly written a whole book, but I wrote a lot of one, even going back to fiction work this morning after I said I was finished last night. A poem I read this morning in Deep West started one of my characters talking again, and when my characters do that, I’m wise to pick up a pen and begin trying to capture what they say.
And some of the readers of this space know that I miss them, as they miss me. While it is way cool to have your phone ring at the bottom of Ten Sleep Canyon (4,000 feet) or near Buffalo Tongue Rock in the Big Horns (9,000 feet) and hear familiar voices two time zones away sounding as if they are right beside you, saying, “Hey, how’s it going?”, it will be better still to hear the voices and shake the hands as well.
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