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Old love letters
Feb. 13th, 2004 12:26 amWhere do all old love letters go when they die?
I mean, not all die. The relationship may end, but certain letters remain true. They will always be valuable, just as some letters from dear friends are. I keep those.
When I was growing up I had this idea that I'd never get any love letters. I guess it's nothing unusual, kids being secretly convinced that they will never find "true love" or get married. It all seems so big in the world of the archetypal fairy tale tapestry that is the background for most of us when we grow up, whether we like it or not.
I see myself and several friends having a case of the archetypal complex of not adding up to THE BIG ONE (whatever that may be in each individual case)- even in the moments when we are experiencing it, or already have experienced it.
And love does happen, in very different forms - and it is big. It leaves us greater, lesser, softer, harder, wiser and more stupid. More complicated - older, younger and definitely more interesting.
But the letters...
The first time I got one I felt just like I've stepped over a thresh hold, a rite of passage. I was part of a secret and important club of people that got such things in the mail.
I never take them for granted, and I haven't got millions of them either, and therefore, when I in an exhausted state last night looked through that little pile it hit me...
Some of them ring false. I don't like them, it's like they don't belong among the others, that feel..true I guess.
Maybe I'm just a sentimental sap-case, but how does one get rid of a love letter? Is there a rite? Or do you just throw them away? Is that horrible?
I mean, not all die. The relationship may end, but certain letters remain true. They will always be valuable, just as some letters from dear friends are. I keep those.
When I was growing up I had this idea that I'd never get any love letters. I guess it's nothing unusual, kids being secretly convinced that they will never find "true love" or get married. It all seems so big in the world of the archetypal fairy tale tapestry that is the background for most of us when we grow up, whether we like it or not.
I see myself and several friends having a case of the archetypal complex of not adding up to THE BIG ONE (whatever that may be in each individual case)- even in the moments when we are experiencing it, or already have experienced it.
And love does happen, in very different forms - and it is big. It leaves us greater, lesser, softer, harder, wiser and more stupid. More complicated - older, younger and definitely more interesting.
But the letters...
The first time I got one I felt just like I've stepped over a thresh hold, a rite of passage. I was part of a secret and important club of people that got such things in the mail.
I never take them for granted, and I haven't got millions of them either, and therefore, when I in an exhausted state last night looked through that little pile it hit me...
Some of them ring false. I don't like them, it's like they don't belong among the others, that feel..true I guess.
Maybe I'm just a sentimental sap-case, but how does one get rid of a love letter? Is there a rite? Or do you just throw them away? Is that horrible?
