Don't Zoom, correspond! (article with longer title)

[Jon Szanto]

For your consideration:

Who needs another Zoom call? Why sending letters might help your loved ones.

[FredRydr]

Though may wife is on business-related Zooms several times a day, so much so that the speakers of the MacBook suffered a crackly death! I, on the other hand, have yet to experience the thrill of a Zoom. I'm too busy writing.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Been thinking about this over the last few weeks.

We (certainly I at least) have become increasingly used to instant communication. For me this has led to a kind of disconnect between what I write to correspondents and the frequency (including postal time) of sending letters. This was thrown into sharp relief recently when I received an overseas email from a friend whose arthritis precludes them writing manually. Their email contained description of events in their life that really required me to respond sooner rather than later (given the fast pace of those events). Sending a snail mail letter would probably not have been the best way forward.

So this got me to thinking in general about what I actually wrte about in my snail mail letters, and realising that much of what I wrote is in the manner/structure of (to choose a poor word) factoids rather than having the quality of a developing conversation.

I've probably not described that very well, but I do hope you get what I'm talking about. If you look at historical letters there is this building of a thread that often can run for years.

Does this make sense?

[Jon Szanto]

Text/synopsis from goodreads.com:

"Sam Shepard is arguably America's finest working dramatist, as well as an accomplished screenwriter, actor, and director. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize, he has written more than forty-five plays, including True West, Fool for Love, and Buried Child. Shepard has also appeared in more than fifty films, beginning with Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Right Stuff. Despite the publicity his work and life have attracted, however, Shepard remains a strongly private man who has said many times that he will never write a memoir. But he has written intensively about his inner life and creative work to his former father-in-law and housemate, Johnny Dark, who has been Shepard's closest friend, surrogate brother (they're nearly the same age), and even artistic muse for forty-five years and counting."

"Two Prospectors gathers nearly forty years of correspondence and transcribed conversations between Shepard and Dark. In these gripping, sometimes gut-wrenching letters, the men open themselves to each other with amazing honesty. Shepard's letters give us the deepest look we may ever get into his personal philosophy and creative process, while in Dark's letters we discover insights into Shepard's character that only an intimate friend could provide. The writers also reflect on the books and authors that stimulate their thinking, their relationships with women (including Shepard's anguished decision to leave his wife and son--Dark's stepdaughter and grandson--for actress Jessica Lange), personal struggles, and accumulating years. Illustrated with Dark's candid, revealing photographs of Shepard and their mutual family across many years, as well as facsimiles of numerous letters, Two Prospectors is a compelling portrait of a complex friendship that has anchored both lives for decades, a friendship also poignantly captured in Treva Wurmfeld's film, Shepard & Dark. "

[Chrissy]

For your consideration:

Who needs another Zoom call? Why sending letters might help your loved ones.

I have literally only technically zoomed once and that was very quickly and only to prove to someone that my face matched my documents. I would love to join one of these pen meetings but they happen at the wrong sort of time for me when they are in the US. A 7pm start on central time is 1am the next morning here and I may fall asleep. So zooming may not be for me.

I've FaceTimed my friends but it's not quite the same as zoom.

However, I can still write letters and that's what I'm doing quite a lot of at the moment. I receive some really wonderful letters from some really lovely people and enjoy reading them very much. I also enjoy replying to them. I almost have to stop myself from doing that too quickly in order to spread them out a little.

[An old bloke]

I confess. I zoom. I like zoom.

Why do I like zoom? The easy answer is since the COVID restrictions came into our lives I had to drive approximately 113 km or approximately 70 miles each way to participate in a council meeting that lasted about an hour to and hour and half each month. Now, thanks to COVID and zoom, I save the drive, sit in the comfort of my own home and 'attend' the council meeting. I also thanks to COVID, I attend a number of other monthly meetings via zoom and save the hassle of driving all over hither and yon.

My family is globally dispersed, and internet technology allows us to 'conference call', often spontaneously. We do it via another app and not zoom.

Thirty years ago, there were a number of months in which my late wife and I were working apart on two different continents with a huge time zone difference. This of course was long before zoom, etc. We saved expense and communication lag time by faxing letters to each other. We would send letters to each other before at night and have a response the following morning.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Text/synopsis from goodreads.com:

"Sam Shepard is arguably America's finest working dramatist, as well as an accomplished screenwriter, actor, and director. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize, he has written more than forty-five plays, including True West, Fool for Love, and Buried Child. Shepard has also appeared in more than fifty films, beginning with Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Right Stuff. Despite the publicity his work and life have attracted, however, Shepard remains a strongly private man who has said many times that he will never write a memoir. But he has written intensively about his inner life and creative work to his former father-in-law and housemate, Johnny Dark, who has been Shepard's closest friend, surrogate brother (they're nearly the same age), and even artistic muse for forty-five years and counting."

"Two Prospectors gathers nearly forty years of correspondence and transcribed conversations between Shepard and Dark. In these gripping, sometimes gut-wrenching letters, the men open themselves to each other with amazing honesty. Shepard's letters give us the deepest look we may ever get into his personal philosophy and creative process, while in Dark's letters we discover insights into Shepard's character that only an intimate friend could provide. The writers also reflect on the books and authors that stimulate their thinking, their relationships with women (including Shepard's anguished decision to leave his wife and son--Dark's stepdaughter and grandson--for actress Jessica Lange), personal struggles, and accumulating years. Illustrated with Dark's candid, revealing photographs of Shepard and their mutual family across many years, as well as facsimiles of numerous letters, Two Prospectors is a compelling portrait of a complex friendship that has anchored both lives for decades, a friendship also poignantly captured in Treva Wurmfeld's film, Shepard & Dark. "

That's what I meant, the growth of a relationship through a shared conversation. I don't believe I have served my correspondents well in this regard.


As for Zoom; it's a great tool and has its place. Better than a phone call (I'm not good on the phone), not as good as in-person.

I always Zoom my mother (and other family members) as this is the only way they get to see me, as in-person visits are often years between.

[FredRydr]

...We would send letters to each other before at night and have a response the following morning.

Now, that's very cool! I like that.

[Chuck Naill]

My 9 year old grand daughter keeps all the letters shes received in a special box and she writes me the sweetest letters in return. She has a Pelikan Twist. She also likes "face time".

[BlkWhiteFilmPix]

Thank you, Jon.

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