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Saturday, September 3, 2022

Did you ever -- write a letter to a stranger?

Patience on a comforter

 

Good morning! And no, to answer a question about my question, politicians don’t count (although writing to them is always a good idea). I'm thinking of writing to someone geographically distant whose story you read or heard somewhere, and you’ll never run into each other at your local grocery store, but you thought, We have a lot in common. I’d like to know him-or-her-or-them. (There. I’m practicing using they/them as a singular pronoun. I need practice with that, I guess.) Have you ever done that?

 

Occasionally I receive notes in the mail from people I’ve never met or encountered so fleetingly that no memory image remained, because I have had a bookstore in Up North tourist country for 29 years and counting. (Thirty next summer!!!) Because some of my annual visitors keep track of my life on this blog. Or because someone ordered a book or books from me years ago, and we fell into correspondence for a while.

 

But it doesn’t always work out long-term.

 

Once, for example, I had a book order from a Frenchman who was teaching at the time in an agricultural lycée on an island in the Indian Ocean. We were both devotes of the entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. He had ordered a Fabre book I had listed online (back when I did that sort of thing) and explained the reason that his mailing address was France: all mail went there first, then came to the end of the island where the airfield was, and eventually worked its way to the other end of the island where the school was. He sent me a little package of vetiver, one of the island’s chief exports. 

 

I sent something back (I don’t remember what), and things were going along swimmingly until I shared an idea I had: When he and his wife returned to France, we should set up agricultural exchange visits! I imagined having my French visitors stay in our old farmhouse and touring them around Leelanau County, introducing them to cherry growing culture and farmer friends in my township and beyond. They would have so many questions and would love northern Michigan, wouldn’t they? Then they could host an agricultural visit in return. We might have several of these from one year to the next -- as I imagined the concept growing.

 

But after sharing my brilliant idea, I never heard from my distant friend again. In retrospect, I think he must have thought I, personally, was angling for a free country place to stay in France with my husband, which wasn’t at all the idea, but I never followed up on whatever misconception or misunderstanding there must have been, and there ended our exchange. 

 

Another correspondence was more successful. My distant customer was a woman who ordered several books of old dog stories, and as it turned out, she was also a writer. When her next book came out, she sent me an early copy. Wonderful writer! That was years ago, and we are still in touch, albeit infrequently. 

 

So now, this morning, I’m kind of on the fence. Does a woman-woman letter-writing connection between strangers work better, especially when the women are roughly the same age? Or is there any chance at all that a young(er) male Scottish bookseller (my son’s age) would welcome hearing from an aged female colleague in the wilds of northern Michigan? He and my son have the same birthday, but surely the fascination of that coincidence is only in my point of view and would mean nothing to him. 

 

Really, don’t I already have enough to do without launching – no, attempting to launch – another pen pal relationship? That was a rhetorical question….

 

Happy Labor Day weekend! And remember to join us at Tuesday evening’s open house at the Leelanau Township Library, where you can have Sarah Shoemaker sign a copy of her new book for you, beginning at 7:30 p.m. 




 


4 comments:

Jeanie Furlan said...

I just read Shaun Bythell‘s „Captain, My Captain“ after you mentioned him….we have had cats, so I was curious what his experience was. I hope to find his „Diary……“ at the library. I might even be able to get his „Confessions…“ as an ebook from them. I hope to, although reading on a screen is not my favorite thing to do, at all! So, is he the one you might write to? Concerning your photos of your plants, I have really enjoyed them so much! The sunset one is also just stunning. You ARE a busy City Mouse person, but your life is so interesting, too. By the way, the picture of Sunny Juliet at her graduation is one of my favorites, just because she looks so pretty, and so proud! Squeaking by in the class, but so full of life!

P. J. Grath said...

Jeanie, I don't really think I'll write him a letter, but you have indeed guessed the identity of the Scottish bookseller. While re-reading his CONFESSIONS OF A BOOKSELLER recently, I laughed many times with what people in theatre (I think: maybe a critic came up with the term?) call "the shock of recognition." Ah, it's a good life, this precarious bookselling path! But I am a COUNTRY mouse, Bean! COUNTRY mouse!

We had quite a time getting that photo of Sunny Juliet, but finally -- . "Full of life" is a good way to describe her, too.

Jeanie Furlan said...

OH! I got it wrong, so true! COUNTRY Mouse, silly me! Sorry for my delay in answering - our Chorale started up again (the one I helped out a bit recording Alto parts). Singing sure is a great thing, and we are all challenged by 6 songs in German (Brahms, Listz, Clara Schumann) 3 in Latin and only 2 in English. Tomorrow is our concert, in a nice resonant church. Gee Whiz….sure wish I could go to your “launches”, even with the Lemonade au naturelle! Funny little detail…!

P. J. Grath said...

I wish you could come to book events in Northport, too, and that I could attend your concerts in Brooklyn! But what? No songs in French? (Do NOT try lemonade without sweetener! Disaster!)