In Praise of the Unfinished Letter
What a drawer of half-written letters is actually for.
The letters I never sent taught me more about what I wanted to say than any of the ones I finished.
I keep a small stack of letters I started and never finished, most of them addressed to people I am still, technically, in touch with.
They are not failures, exactly, though I used to think of them that way. Each one did the actual work a letter is for - it made me sit still and think honestly about someone - even though it never made it to an envelope.
I no longer feel obligated to finish them. Some thoughts, I have decided, are complete the moment you have thought them clearly, whether or not anyone else ever reads them.
