The Isolation Journals - Day 73

Prompt:  (re: writing correspondence to an incarcerated person)  In his seminal essay “On Ways of Seeing,” the critic John Berger writes, “To look is an act of choice.” In his essay “The Life of Images,” the poet Charles Simic writes, “the attentive eye turns the world mysterious.” Decide to look at things that you find beautiful or mysterious and write to someone about what you see, about why they are beautiful, sublime. Give them some joy. Be as particular as you can.

Send your letter to:

California Medical Facility
Attn: David Maldonado, CRM
1600 California Dr.
Vacaville, CA 95687

Our contact will distribute the letters to incarcerated persons in the prison’s hospice, medical wings, and other areas of need. If you’re open to a two-way correspondence, you can include your name and return address with the letter.

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Hello,

It feels funny to be writing to someone whose name I don't know, but we have not yet been introduced.  My name is Katie and I live in Nashville.  I'm writing you on a sunny Friday morning in June.  I just came in from walking my dog and it's still so early that there's a damp chill in the air.  The kind of dampness that tells you, just wait a few hours, it will feel like walking through a wet washcloth.  The heat gets sweltering, but I don't mind it.  It forces people to slow down.

Now I am back inside, admiring the way my cat has a gift for finding comfort in the strangest places.  She is the most unbothered, blatantly selfish creature I have ever encountered.  Traits that I would resent in a human, but I find delightful in this cat.  She's laying on her back, spread-eagle, on top of a footstool that is, for the moment, in a sunbeam.  How can I resist going over there to pet her velvet white belly?  Hold on.  Ok.  I'm back.  You know how they have therapy dogs that visit hospitals and such?  Dogs are cool and all, but a cat is the ultimate symbol of the magic of just calming down and taking time to rest.  Why don't we have therapy cats?

Is it hot where you are?  Do you get to spend time in the fresh air?  How do you fill your hours each day?  Do you like to read?  I am a librarian, so I would rather read than just about anything else.  In this time when our country has been shut inside our homes for months, reading has been a great escape.  I hope it gives you the same gift.  

That's all I have time to write this morning, but I hope this letter finds you in peace and I hope to hear back from you.

Your friend,

Katie