The famous quote, by The Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali.
He was the greatest, and I look to his teachings and try to remember that I would like myself to seem as graceful as a butterfly and behold the power of a single bee to deal with life's shortcomings and minor set backs.
All of this from a simple project of making a rural mailbox for a famous person of our choice. The "rural" mailbox, although I grew up in the country, I forgot what one looked like, and wondered, does anyone use one anymore at all? It is so easy for me to forget to check my mail these days. The real mail that I am concerned about comes in minute to minute via E-mail. No surprises here for anyone who joined civilization at the later part of the 20th century, although I do miss the days of getting a hoards of birthday cards around my day in May, or from a Pen Pal---gosh! The younger generation likely doesn't even know what Pen Pals are. I just looked mine up on facebook, but alas, there are over 500 of her name that I would have to sift through to find her, if I even remember her name correctly, and who knows what she looks like after all these years.
I have to say, I am so thankful for my Dad whom continues to write me letters via what is now termed as 'snail mail,' giving it such a sad connotation. What is wrong with a snail, or being slow? Slow, maybe, but deliberate, yes. I noticed right away when I started using e-mail how it was and still is oh so difficult to truly understand what people want to say. Seems that most people know by now that all caps means they are shouting, but do to the immediate quality of e-mail, sometimes I truly do not take their meaning or sincerity in the correct direction, often quite the opposite.
As someone whom considers herself an environmentalist, I do see the advantage over e-mail as there is no paper involved, as long as they are not needlessly printed up. However, I have found it no longer exciting when I hear from long-lost friends, it's hard to really know how they are doing, or to learn anything new about them, or even try to understand them more. I used to enjoy so much stationary, the colors, the textures and the handwriting, when a pen would run out of ink, would they choose the same kind of pen, or pick a new one, whatever was closest? Some would write perfectly in a straight line across the page without lined papers, (I always admired this so much) others would purposely write in squiggles, or circles or zig-zags just to be cute, or thoughtful, or for me to know that they were having fun writing to me, and this was something special.
Writing letters is graceful, like a butterfly, one could sting like a bee if necessary, but this is best left to e-mails that can be deleted quickly and forgotten, faster than a letter in which one would have to burn or shred to get rid of. I suppose, I still have the option to be both, I prefer the idea of a butterfly more, but sometimes, I like to wear costumes
