dear everybody

I have decided to send detractors to heck on the whole “Dear” thing. I grew up writing lots of real letters on real paper, corresponding with a variety of friends back in the United States. Guy, girl – it didn’t matter – I always greeted them as “Dear”.

One seemingly placid day, though, electronic mail reared its “1” and “0” encrusted head, and the instantaity (my word) it brought meant more than just the death or slow, guttering demise of the long tradition of pen and paper and stamp. Letters became more like conversations – so informal you could turn them on and off like your TV - and "dear" went the way of the "dodo".

Force of culture now makes me avoid this slightly more formal “dear” at the beginning of letters. It feels rude to me, though. It’s as though by this new internet convention of instant communication we agree implicitly to create corporately a fantasy world in which we are never in reality separated by space and time. The phone was a precursor but now internet and text messaging and video conferencing mean that we no longer require time to adjust to the proximitous existence of the gargantuan miracle that is another human life. We have created a world in which all we say on contact is “oh. you again” and then launch into whatever enters our mind. There is no revision and very little forethought.

The nature of man is weak and hates change. John Steinbeck once wrote (somewhat tongue in cheek) that the perfect time is always two generations ago. A wise man, though, rejects nothing - not even change - out of hand. He meets new experience with the equanimity born of a knowledge of the fragility of his own understanding and an awareness that this world is designed to be good.

Email and the internet may be dehumanizing and disassociating but that's the reality of our world, and they also give us a medium in our strangulating, isolating, suburbanized world to reconnect with humanity. Furthermore, the web allows me to get on my website from here in Peru and cogitate (or proselytize, Mike forbid) on whatever rabbits my mind may be trailing. While some may bemoan the downfall of formality and excellence in communication, it is equally easy to argue that the benefits outweigh the cost.

To you then, dear friends and associates, I dedicate this website. May I help staunch the flow of informality and stand as a bastion against bad grammar. May I encourage you to think before you attack and then to attack wisely before you submit. And may I above all tell amusing anecdotes, to keep you interested.

By the way, I have decided to start writing for this site every day. We shall see if I can be as diligent as I am well-intentioned.