Monday, December 17, 2007

Delivery



This was in our mailbox tonight.

Dane pulled it out -- two sheets of folded-up white notebook paper. No envelope. On the outside was written: "Yes, this letter is for you."

It's mysterious and odd and troubling. The letter writer left no name or contact information. She asks us to help her by helping others.

OK, sure. But I'd also help her if she wanted. Instead, she's left us with this burden, a secret of hers that I'm not sure what to do with. It's a bit like the Post Secret blog my sister clued me in to. People send their deepest secrets away to a stranger. He posts them online.

It must be cathartic.

I've been wondering -- did she drive by, window rolled down, eyes scanning houses for the perfect mailbox? Did she write other letters? Did she like our Christmas lights? Why us?

If this helped her, if it really truly did, then I'm more than happy to have gotten the letter, read it, thought about it.

But if it didn't, if it's a joke, then I'm not impressed.

It's strange either way. But I think it's real.

7 comments:

bryan said...

Interesting. Very interesting. Send it to Post Secret. Frank will know what to do with it.

I can't help but wonder if I'm supposed to be inspired or sad.

Jonathan said...

Why did they do this?

I don't think it's fair for someone to dump their problems on you like that. Things seem to be going well for you right now, but what gives a stranger the right to put something like that in your mailbox? What if you had more problems than this person had and were not able to take one more thing to think about right now? What if it was delivered to a house near you that was found by a child old enough to read and understand the letter but young enough to be really disturbed by it due to a lack of life experience?

I feel sorry for the person and I know that the problems I have had in my life are not as bad as theirs, but I try to vent to people I know (family, friends, etc.) or people who make it a career to help (counseling professionals, etc.) rather than strangers.

I hadn't heard of the Post Secret thing before but I think that's a great place to put it.

Well I guess I better get back to my life that looks much better by comparison (at least since I made significant efforts to fix some of the problems I have had in the past couple of years).

P.S. Good post. :)

Jeannine said...

Crazy! The letter seems to follow the reflective theme that you have been writing about lately. Maybe for that reason alone it was not an accident that you guys received the letter. Who knows.

Anonymous said...

That's sort of creepy (the letter itself and just thinking about some weird stranger putting anonymous letters in your mailbox), but also sort of inspiring, I guess, that this stranger has such confidence in you. Mostly just creepy/weird though.

Unknown said...

Very odd. It's such a strange combination. The tragedy, the hope, then materialism. I suppose it could be real, but I lean toward fake. Either way, it's sad, and if it is true, I hope the person finds the help the need. Thanks for sharing.

Veronica said...

Thanks for your comments, guys. I talked to two other friends today, who both felt basically like Jonathan does -- angry. I do feel that way. And I also feel defensive - how does she know if I have problems? Who is she to tell me to change? Again, if it helped, great. But it's still just so weird. And, yeah, Bryan -- I'm totally with you -- I can't help but wonder if I'm supposed to be inspired or sad. Like Grant pointed out, the letter's a bit all over the place. She goes from saying how awful her life is to hope to materialism to telling me I need to change. Who knows? I've decided to not give it much more thought.

Jenny said...

Thank you for sharing this. I'm inspired by the letter. The writer was able to get something off her chest and is now feeling that she did some good by leaving optimism and hope in a random mailbox. Hopefully her life will improve by believing that she helped someone else.