Carol brought these flower arrangements to yesterday's Haiku Reading in the Teahouse. I thought that something from Sei Shonagon would be the perfect accompaniment. Imagine! So many centuries and we still have her writings! And some of us are still reading them and smiling, too!
From The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, 10th century Japan
(Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on this work.)
Letters are commonplace enough, yet what splendid things they are! When someone is in a distant province and one is worried about him, and then a letter suddenly arrives, one feels as though one were seeing him face to face. Again, it is a great comfort to have expressed one's feelings in a letter even though one knows it cannot yet have arrived. If letters did not exist, what dark depressions would come over one! When one has been worrying about something and wants to tell a certain person about it, what a relief it is to put it all down in a letter! Still greater is one's joy when a reply arrives. At that moment a letter really seems like an elixir of life.”
You assignment for today (I am speaking to myself AND to you!) Surprise someonw with the real letter; use a pretty stamp.
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