Over the last while, I’ve been receiving some very nice letters and comments.
Two, in particular, touched me. This one:
I stumbled upon your blog a few days ago. I’m reading all your archives right now.
One of your entries moved me so much I had to pass it to my best, most initimate, most sensitive/sensual girlfriends. It wasn’t a big group, but a group I felt could hear what you were saying in your entry. It was about finding the spot on a woman that should be kissed.
I read your blog every day because I can’t believe there is a man out in the universe who is this intuitive, in tune, so aware of himself emotionally and physically. I wish you had gone to my college — you would have been so loved and admired.
So this entry distresses me, and I don’t even know you. I understand lonliness — I’ve never had intimacy, or rather, I’m very afraid of it. I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this because you don’t know me either and you won’t care, but this entry hurts. You must know by now that someone thinks of you everyday. Maybe it is your mom, maybe an ex-lover or girlfriend or male friend or co worker.
I think I’m more in shock that you can write so honestly and openly. I’m jealous of that.
well, I just wanted to let you know that. And that I have a crush on your blog. Can a person crush on a blog?
Please take care,
Zaira
And this from a few months ago:
Hi Jeff,
you don’t know me and we will probably never meet. It’s sort of interesting the way the internet has changed the way we can know someone.
Allow me to introduce myself, since you have already bore your soul in a very real way that has moved me to write to a complete stranger-something i have never done.
I am a 30 yr old interior designer, a born and bred new yorker currently living in brooklyn. It’s been slow at work lately, so to pass the time I have taken to reading blogs mostly design related, but somehow i read a comment that you had made on a random blog, looking back i can’t remember which one unfortunately, and it led me back to your personal blog somehow.
you see I am not like you at all. I feel similar feelings, and even have similar beliefs, but I don’t have the guts to put myself out there in that way. I dont even have a blog, and i can barely talk to my friends about the way im feeling. so for me your blog is very therapeutic and refreshing.
like most people who blog, im sure, you wonder if anyone out there is reading. Well just wanted to let you know that I really like your blog and will continue to read it.
I have added you as a flickr contact and i see that you have reciprocated-*armadilliz* I am not a stalker / crazy person, or anything like that, just a fan, so rest easy.
Take care,
-Liz
And while people tell me how much they appreciate me being open and sharing myself, it’s nothing compared to what they share of themselves in these letters. I don’t know what compels someone to write to a total stranger, but it’s a warming gesture, something that inspires me when I’m feeling closed and self-conscious.
Thank you to the people who’ve written me. Thank you to the people who share their own problems and issues and lives. Thank you to the people who let me know that I’ve inspired them to start their own journals. Thank you for supporting me when we’ve never even spoken.
It’s your words that make me feel like I’m not so alone when I’m sitting in my house, wondering what to do with myself. It’s your kindness that gives me strength when the world is falling down around me. It’s knowing that I’ve been able to make a difference that keeps me going.
Thank you.
Jeff, see my most recent comment on a few posts earlier.…
Hey you posted my letter! I’m so touched. I still read your blog too, although lately work has gotten much busier, so not as frequently. I have noticed you being more down lately. Chin up. perhaps you should move to new york, where there are 10 gorgeous, articulate, and talented women for every one guy. imagine what I have to go through!!
@Mae — Responded
@Liz — I walked through New York twice…it was quite an amazing experience. The culture and the people give it such a worldly personality. I’d love to live in such a cosmopolitan area one day, but I’m currently enjoying my existence in a small city.