I got a letter from Singapore yesterday.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Hopefully, the United States Postal Service doesn't shut down before my reply gets back to her in Singapore.  (The USPS is in dire straits; click here to read the New York Times article about it.)

It's true!  Another one bites the dust!  She took the dare I offered a couple weeks back.

One word: Wow! 

Two more words: Thank you.

I am honored, humbled, inspired, grateful.

This one came from the UK and included a CD of original music!  Put that in your pipe and smoke it!  Gonna have to up my game!!!

To my UK pen pal ... watch your mailbox.

How awesome is that??

Seriously awesome. 

Game on, pen pal!

I recently told a friend of mine that I still wrote letters.  As usual, he was shocked that I still did.

His first question was, "Why?"  He was surprised, confused, and curious. 


He likened the practice of writing and sending letters to collecting antiques.  I can see his point.  Writing letters involves spending time with something that is quaint, old-fashioned, out-of-favor, outdated; something that belongs to ancient times. 


In answer to his question, I decided to make a quick and unofficial list of all the reasons why I still write letters.  I'll keep thinking of reasons why I still write letters, I am sure.  For now, read this and see what you think.


I write letters because ...

- when you sit down to write, you don't know where you will end up ... you say things you never thought you would say, find an interesting turn of phrase, clarify your feelings, express yourself in surprising ways


- it is fun to surprise and delight people by mail


- it is a physical record of what you were thinking at a particular time in your life


- it is the only way to really say thank you in this day and age


- it is one way to slow down the pace of life, to be analogue in a digital world


- it is a kind of manual labor, literally


- I think of it as a kind of practice, as a kind of meditation


- my mother made me do it and still does


- by now, it is a habit


- of the (eternal) hope that someone will write me back ... (sigh)


- many of the people I most admire in the world wrote letters



AND YOU?


Do you write letters still?  Why do you write them?

Do you read them?  If so, why do you read them and who's do you read? 

Let me know in the comments below. 

Better yet: write me a letter!  I dare you.

319 Lafayette St, #159, NY, NY 10012

A native of the island of Newfoundland, Duane grew up exposed to the island’s mélange of English, French, Irish, Spanish and Portuguese influences.  Duane's music does the impossible: it fuses traditional Newfoundland music with the gypsy jazz of the legendary Django Reinhardt.  His music dips and soars, bends and blurs.

Soon after I moved from the US to Canada in 2005, at a tiny show in a hotel room in Montreal, I heard Duane trading solos with trumpet player Patrick Boyle of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. What a sound!  A swirl of rhythmic flayed guitar, fast picking, and muted trumpet musings.  Eureka!  I had a handful of new songs and THAT was the sound I had been looking for!  Humbled, I approached Duane after the show and asked for his card.  He obliged and (later confessed) that he thought nothing of would come of our exchange.  Lo and behold, a few months later, he and Patrick were sitting with me in a studio in Guelph recording two or three tunes.  Ha!  That'll learn ya, Mr. Duane!  He and I still marvel at our meeting!  We've made a lot of music together since then and I look forward to making so much more.

I asked Duane two simple questions:

1.  What made a difference for you along the way?

2.  Is there any person to whom you would like to ask this same question?

"Sounds obvious but I would simply say practice. I find there can be a bit of a mind game when I'm trying to learn something as I'm always looking for a faster way to get to where I want to go.

Feelings of doubt or frustration can seep in but when I finally get the joyous feeling of getting there I realize that basically it was just a lot of hard work, a lot of practice that was the key. 

Though I have -- of late -- tuned in to the idea of 'deliberate practice' which you can check out here.

Joseph Reinhardt

There's much written about Django's life but his brother Joseph was also an amazing player. Though he only played rhythm guitar on the recordings with Django there exists a clip of Joseph taking a solo during a tribute concert after Django's death which blew my mind when I first heard it. You can check that out here."

>> Tenacity: The quality or fact of being very determined; determination

Tenacity is also a series of short blog posts about my favorite players, musicians, athletes, artists, songwriters, entrepreneurs, writers, excellent people, etc.  The (short, sweet and practical) posts will explore how they got to be so damn good at what they do and what made a difference for them along the way.

Duane & I at Fred's Records // photo: koko bonaparte