Tammi's World

A Quiet Evening

Nothing that was on TV last night was what I wanted to watch. I was rather restless, didn't even feel like blogging.

So I hunkered down on the love seat and started to flip through the channels. As I checked to see what movies were just starting I noticed 84 Charing Cross Road with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.

Now, it didn't really look like anything I'd like, but I was immediately drawn in. And I couldn't NOT watch.

It tells the story of friendship. A friendship of words. Bancroft's character, Helene Hanff lives in NY and Hopkins' character Frank Doel, lives in London. The story begins in the late 1940's, while England is still struggling to recover from the war. Doel works in a used bookstore and Hanff, a writer, is a lover of old books.

Their friendship spans decades. They never speak. It's all via letters. Precious, handwritten letters. The kind you take time over. Time to write and even more time to read.

And it recorded history. Events, thoughts, feelings. History. Forever captured in the words on a piece of paper.

It was a wonderful movie. No, no action. No romance - not really. Oh, I think they each had crushes on each other. But it was all fantasy in that vein. No, just a shared love of literature and books. A comfort that comes from reading each other's thoughts and humor.

It made me think about how long it's been since I've lingered over a letter. How long it's been since I really took TIME to communicate with someone. I used to write a lot of letters. I really enjoyed the process. Pages and pages. It's always been easy(er) for me to write about things close to my heart. I really don't do so well talking about that stuff.

When email first came along, I treated it like letters. I'd take time. I'd communicate. Lately, I don't do that so well. I'll jot a note, but most of the time, not so much. Oh, I think of doing it often. And I LOVE getting notes and letters from those I care about. Hell, if I'm honest I have a folder in my email where I save those that are most precious to me. And like a letter, I often pull them out and re-read them. But somehow, it's really not the same.

But this movie? Oh, it was wonderful. It was sweet and charming. And it made me think. Not of war or sex or heaven or hell. It made me think of people. And the bond of friendship. Communication and how very precious that is.

I think I'm going to dig out my old stationary. It might just be time to write a few letters.

Posted by Tammi at April 19, 2007 05:36 AM | TrackBack