Correspondences

In the wake of an epic and apparently endless Film Bin recording of a fan commentary for 'V For Vendetta', everything is seeming just a little fuzzy but it's best to press on anyway, springing the textual traps of a Quirky Muffin upon both myself and today's reader. The rota says that that is 'Gene from Topeka' today. Hi, Gene!

Have I written about correspondences before? They form the backbone of a fashionably obsolete mode of communication, one that involves more than posting pictures of cats and tweeting about television shows, and one that can be very challenging indeed. The nature of the writing of 'proper' letters and e-mails entails that you actually do engage in a dialogue and establish the corresponding points of shared interest as well as the points of mutual discord. You actually have to absorb what the other person is saying, lest they give up on your endless self-serving monologue. You learn so much and share so much that it can become a reassurance even in the grimmer parts of life that there's someone out there, a pen friend, a correspondent. Someone who corresponds to some parts of what you are.

Correspondences have been a vital part of my life for a while now, mainly after completing the dreaded doctorate, and now they're compulsory for keeping touch with people long gone back to their own countries and lives. I'm terrible at it, and neglect many people, which is shaming. This very blog is very much a correspondence, and not just with you Gene, but with the fictional me that lives on top of the monitor, smiling and throwing peanuts at any puns that emerge. Gosh, it has been ages since a good pun!

Hang on, were puns ever a thing here? Did I make that up on the spot? Oops. It must have been the Clomp stealing the keyboard. The Clomp, evidence manifest of a youth spent wisely on silly story telling and imaginative lunacy. If only the Clomp were real and could go and menace people in the Job Centre who insist on little books being filled in and futile visits to their job search website. He/It/Whatever would probably laugh and zap off to a more entertaining time at the International Lint Exposition of 2094, as set in scenic Milwaukee. The Clomp is strange.

With that, and with much tiredness, the keyboard is hung up for another day and the world surrendered once again to the sunny glades of Morpheus. Much like many others out there in the world, but not Gene; He's currently on a week-long detox program that encourages pumpkins as a viable and stable food source. He won't be sleeping any time soon. There are few correspondences between anyone and Gene.

O.

Remember: Be careful out there!