Well hello!! Here we are, finally, meeting in the virtual world of letters. I am looking forward to seeing what might occur in our dialogue through letters.
I am not sure how well I shall behave here. I am used to intersecting email monologues with commentaries, branching discussions through to finer and finer details. This has a structural fault. Two in fact. At least two that I have become aware of when I engaged my brother. We would have incredible depth and detailed discussions, but... First, we'd lose the whole view, the big picture, as we went into detail regarding a particular point. This would lead to the conversational elements, branches, being removed from their context, and they'd become useless and dead branches.
Second, there would be interesting patterns where different branches would link up, but there was no way to trace or track them. It was like looking at similar patterns at different levels of discussion. Conversations revealed a fractal nature. A serious wow, but beyond the capacity of the structure to reveal itself elegantly.
So, here we are, with a rather ham-fisted dialogue. My blurting few paragraphs, then yours, and so on, like taking turns in a board game. No accurate interruption. I suppose this allows for continuity of thought, but there is a missed opportunity.
Unless we write something that is less like a dialogue, less like a to-ing and fro-ing of information between two people, but where we are constructing something together, covering different faces of the same thing, shining light mutually, thus revealing something which is not only of interest to us, but to any other reader who may be interested. Let us suggest that if we collected these letters together, they could be transferred to a book relatively easily. If this is the case, then we need to be aware of it from the start. For example, in this context, this would be like an introduction, a preface, a period of preparation.
So, in this book ahead of us, this blank book, where all its white space, we shall leave our tracks, easy enough for others to follow should they so wish, and perhaps on the reader's journey, just as we read each other's contributions, we may see the lay of the land, as new thoughts come to mind, and possible new directions to take.
Let us have a period of preparation before we strike out. Let us gather our things, though let us keep light. We need just enough and no more to sustain us. The land shall provide.
And then let us take various paths, across the snowfields, across the deserts, across the oceans, across the vast spaces, one breath at a time, stretching the moment of our awareness from presence to the the distant horizons.
I could not wish for a more interesting partner to take this journey. I look forward to hearing what you bring, of yourself, and to what you draw our attention. This is enough of an objective for me, to enjoy the journey, but given the conditions of the world and our place in it, I welcome any superior objective you may wish to have, some distant point, some elevated place which may set our journey of life and the mounting troubles of the world into light relief.