Sorry Dead People, We are Reading Your Letters!
Hello again, Reader!
A few weeks ago, I was going down a rabbit hole on Substack, checking random writers and their Substack recommendations. That’s how I came across letters of note and I ended up scrolling through many letters, one after the other.
Letters of note is where Shaun Usher publishes interesting letters(written by real people).
Life Lesson #1 — Reject the Rejections
Some of them made me chuckle. Like this letter by Paul Devlin in which he rejects the rejection letters from universities..
“This year, I applied to a great number of fine colleges and universities and, of course, received many rejection letters. Unfortunately, the number of rejections that I can accept is very limited. It is for that reason that I was forced to reject the rejection letters of many qualified institutions. This was not an easy task. Each rejection was reviewed carefully and on an individual basis.”
The above letter is now available only for paid subscribers, you can read the same here.
Mother’s Wisdom
In this one, a mother sends a letter full of witty wisdom to her daughter who was away for college:
“Think of yourself as a silver rocket — use loud music as your fuel; books like maps and co-ordinates for how to get there. Host extravagantly, love constantly, dance in comfortable shoes, talk to Daddy and Nancy about me every day and never, ever start smoking. It’s like buying a fun baby dragon that will grow and eventually burn down your f*ing house.”
A Frustrated Mother
This is from a frustrated mother published in his recent newsletter:
Ever since your program went on television, my son Barry, who is 5, insists on watching every Batman program. He gets so excited watching Batman on TV that I have a difficult time getting him to bed when the program is finished.
If it isn’t too much trouble could you just once, at the end of the show say, “And now it is time for Barry Strauss to brush his teeth and go to sleep.” It would be a big help.
Now let’s get to the matter of the subject of this letter.
As I was unfolding each letter, finishing those that interested me, I came across a few which were written by people who are no longer with us. There was one particular letter that felt .. too personal.
Not so surprisingly, it was a love letter! Halfway through the letter, I came to a stop and took my eyes off it.
Imagine a very personal letter you have written to a friend or a family being out in the world, on the internet?
I talked about this with a couple of friends who were mostly ok with it.
“But they are… dead..”, was the quiet response. What they meant was that it’s not endangering anyone’s privacy.
While it’s true a lot of stories about the past and history come from such letters, I couldn’t stop wondering how the people who passed away would feel about the world reading their personal letters.
Two questions for you
And I would like to end this letter with a couple of questions for you, dear Reader..
- Do you think it is ok to keep reading these letters? Those which are too personal?
- If your answer is, “yes”, will you be ok with having your personal instant messages(the closest thing to letters) out in the public?
These letters, though, are strictly between you and me and not for the world 😉
And thanks to Shaun Usher for bringing us some wonderful letters. Finding them and filtering them for all of us must involve loads of work. Do check his substack and newsletter.
Before I leave, I have another book suggestion!
Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern was the first epistolary novel I read. If this letter about letters ignited in you more interest for letters, check that book which is all about letters exchanged between two childhood friends who grow up and …. (read the book and find out the rest)
I will be waiting for your response and see you soon!
PS: I finished reading that love letter. Blame the mind and its curiosity!
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