I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Tim Ramsey
fathersez
· 1 year ago
A really touching letter.
It's not easy to put pen on paper and write with such fervour and feelings.
There were times during my teenage days when I had to write letters on behalf of some of our neighbours to their wive's back in India. I then had to read back to them what I had written. Though these people saw their wives, say, every 5 years or so, I don't remember writing such words of love or endearment.
I am sure our fallen soldier's words were straight from deep inside his heart. Somehow this brings out the hidden Shakespeare in all of us.
David H. Sundwall
· 1 year ago
What a remarkable letter. Thanks for the inspiration.
Christian
· 1 year ago
Morbid yet inspiring
Chris Cree
· 1 year ago
I think as a culture we've fallen a long way in our ability to communicate with the written word in the last 150 years. We could all stand to read more of that kind of eloquence. Thanks for sharing it.
Sherwin
· 1 year ago
A loving letter but it is indeed under different circumstances than most Valentines Day love letters. We aren't all facing eminent death. Nevertheless, we can learn from this.
Jason
· 1 year ago
Actually, I'd say it's more that we aren't aware of whether or not we're facing imminent death, not that we actually are not.
If you want to write like this, what you really need to do is get your conscious mind out of the way... the words to write letters full of inspiration and passion flow from elsewhere.
By the way, The Art Of Manliness is the newest of my blogs I read, and already one of my favorite... thank you.
Keith
· 1 year ago
Great post and I agree with Chris Cree on the issue of writing. We have moved away from expressing our feelings as men through writing.
Brett
· 1 year ago
@Tim-Thanks!
@Chris and Keith-The writing skills of Americans in general have sadly gone downhill. My wife is a history instructor at a community college and she can't believe some of the stuff her students turn in, or even write in emails to her. I think part of this is caused by all the texting, im-ing, and emailing we do. OMG and LOL are turning our brains to mush. I think men should get back into writing real letters on occasion. Emails are convenient, but there is something truly great about a handwritten letter.
@ Jason-You got it just right. No one knows whether we are facing death or not. I also like your comment about getting our consciousness out of the way. Very true. And thanks for the compliment.
Kate
· 1 year ago
fathersez- You piqued my curiosity. Why were you writing letters home for men who's wives were back in India?
ian
· 1 year ago
Trust me...now that this is published - all kinds of variations will be going out on Match.com. A great service not only to his country..but to a bunch of hard up online dating dudes a century later. Now that's a Patriot!
Katie
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the Great Advice :) I love writing love letters. This will help me out allot.
~Katie
Brandon
· 1 year ago
I only wish I could have read this blog before valentines day. I was at somewhat of a loss as to what to get my new girlfriend and this would have made a fantastic idea!
I used to write poetry years ago when I had a girlfriend who was interested in the world of Renaissance and it was beautiful indeed. I agree that the OMG and LOL, ROFLMAO nOOb speak of today has degraded our language into nothing more than shorthand abbreviation of the great and powerful vocabulary it used to be.
After reading this, I'm still going to write her that letter and surprise her with it, I'm sure she'll love it. Thanks for the awesome article!
Seriously this site freaking rocks - please don't ever stop writing :)
Michael Sanders
· 1 year ago
The YouTube link is (unfortunately) broken - hope you can find another link for this wonderful piece from Ken Burns' Civil War series.
veronica
· 1 year ago
hi idont know whowillread this it is a lovely feeling to have whenyou can find true love i have not yet to discribe the feeling that i have in my heart nowing that i came close to finding what itoo would like to share with some whom is ready to idmitt that being real to one self is more inportant than making excuses!!!!!!!!!!!! TRUE LOVELY YOURS veronica.sandez
All Comments
Tim Ramsey
It's not easy to put pen on paper and write with such fervour and feelings.
There were times during my teenage days when I had to write letters on behalf of some of our neighbours to their wive's back in India. I then had to read back to them what I had written. Though these people saw their wives, say, every 5 years or so, I don't remember writing such words of love or endearment.
I am sure our fallen soldier's words were straight from deep inside his heart. Somehow this brings out the hidden Shakespeare in all of us.
If you want to write like this, what you really need to do is get your conscious mind out of the way... the words to write letters full of inspiration and passion flow from elsewhere.
By the way, The Art Of Manliness is the newest of my blogs I read, and already one of my favorite... thank you.
@Chris and Keith-The writing skills of Americans in general have sadly gone downhill. My wife is a history instructor at a community college and she can't believe some of the stuff her students turn in, or even write in emails to her. I think part of this is caused by all the texting, im-ing, and emailing we do. OMG and LOL are turning our brains to mush. I think men should get back into writing real letters on occasion. Emails are convenient, but there is something truly great about a handwritten letter.
@ Jason-You got it just right. No one knows whether we are facing death or not. I also like your comment about getting our consciousness out of the way. Very true. And thanks for the compliment.
You piqued my curiosity. Why were you writing letters home for men who's wives were back in India?
~Katie
I used to write poetry years ago when I had a girlfriend who was interested in the world of Renaissance and it was beautiful indeed. I agree that the OMG and LOL, ROFLMAO nOOb speak of today has degraded our language into nothing more than shorthand abbreviation of the great and powerful vocabulary it used to be.
After reading this, I'm still going to write her that letter and surprise her with it, I'm sure she'll love it. Thanks for the awesome article!
http://www.zenit.org/article-20956?l=english