"What a Marvelous Time I Had With You That Weekend in October, 1956..."
I used to enjoy reading Miss Manners, and one of my favorite answers of hers was in response to someone who wanted to know what they should do about a very, very overdue bread-and-butter letter (which, if you young whippersnappers don't know, is what one called the thank-you notes you were supposed to write after visiting someone. On paper. by snail mail.) She said:
[Miss Manners] would not write a letter whose theme was to acknowledge that she should have written long before. The theme should still be gratitude. You are guilty, but you do not want to put your hosts in the unattractive role of being your accusers. Miss Manners would have written, "What a marvelous time I had with you that weekend in October, 1956...."
Like the person who wrote that letter to Miss Manners, I have felt guilty for over six years (off and on) about an unfinished, unposted piece of writing. In February of 2009, connielane gave me some very thoughtful prompts on a meme I was participating in. I wrote about half of my response and I guess LiveJournal must have suddenly died at that exact time because I never finished it and never posted it. I can only assume she gets online every day and checks my LJ, eager to know what I will say about the topics she gave me.
So, in accordance with the advice of Miss Manners, thank you, connielane, for the interesting and thought-provoking prompts. Here is my response. Anyone who wants prompts of their own, say so in the comments and I will give you five. :)
And for anyone seriously considering following the link and reading this, two notes:
1 - The first answer is about Terry Pratchett, and so DOUBLY long overdue.
2 - The last answer is about my religious disbelief and may be offensive to some--not that I was trying to be offensive or anything, but it's a sensitive subject.
[Miss Manners] would not write a letter whose theme was to acknowledge that she should have written long before. The theme should still be gratitude. You are guilty, but you do not want to put your hosts in the unattractive role of being your accusers. Miss Manners would have written, "What a marvelous time I had with you that weekend in October, 1956...."
Like the person who wrote that letter to Miss Manners, I have felt guilty for over six years (off and on) about an unfinished, unposted piece of writing. In February of 2009, connielane gave me some very thoughtful prompts on a meme I was participating in. I wrote about half of my response and I guess LiveJournal must have suddenly died at that exact time because I never finished it and never posted it. I can only assume she gets online every day and checks my LJ, eager to know what I will say about the topics she gave me.
So, in accordance with the advice of Miss Manners, thank you, connielane, for the interesting and thought-provoking prompts. Here is my response. Anyone who wants prompts of their own, say so in the comments and I will give you five. :)
And for anyone seriously considering following the link and reading this, two notes:
1 - The first answer is about Terry Pratchett, and so DOUBLY long overdue.
2 - The last answer is about my religious disbelief and may be offensive to some--not that I was trying to be offensive or anything, but it's a sensitive subject.