What a surprise!
My son is visiting for the
holidays and ordered some things to be delivered to my address and in my name
(so as not to confuse the mail carrier), so since I hadn't ordered anything, I
put the three packages that arrived yesterday with his things in the bedroom,
and then this morning I saw that he'd left one of the packages out with a
post-it note to me. It began, "Tina, I don't know how to thank
you for that wonderful letter--" and I was trying to figure out who'd
gotten a wonderful letter from me. I feared I hadn't written any
wonderful letters, and I wondered whether the person had the wrong Tina!
But I read on and continued to wonder.
I should have thought of the wonderful now-90-year-old vegan I met at a Christmas party three or four years ago because she has a way of writing like a writer--someone who thinks things through on a lot
of different levels, and the wording of "Actually, yes, I do {know how to
thank you for that wonderful letter}--by doing better than this in
reply." She uses words with mastery, and I feel that I'm reading
Diana Athill!
But I read on and saw that the sender was giving me some
vegan candies. Who would do that? I saw a signature of
"L," and my son had just returned from visiting someone whose name is
Lani, but she never sends me vegan candies, and she wouldn't have mailed them
anyway.
I thought of a vegan friend who lives in Pacifica (and is
active with the SF Veg Society), but I hadn't written her any "wonderful
letter."
Finally, I thought of this lovely, 90-year-old vegan because, even though I hadn't
considered my letter to her wonderful, it was wonderfully heart-felt.
Before
even thanking her, I popped one of the vegan chocolates into my mouth,
and they're delicious.
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