12,913

Dearest L,

Language is a fascinating aspect of the human experience in that there is no way it should’ve ever been created. We communicate with these lines and shapes called letters, and those letters form things called words, and apparently words put together in a certain order create something called sentences, and we get meaning from them only because that’s what we’ve been taught. Every now and again, I type out a text or a comment, and I reflect on this strange phenomenon. We are blessed, to put it mildly, to have such a powerful weapon at our disposal. Communication and understanding rely upon language. You, for example, would not be able to read and comprehend this without language’s permission to do so. Nor would I be able to write it, because the weird curves and slants we call letters wouldn’t make sense to me.

All this fancy talk to say that, despite distance and suffering and wailing, language reaches us all and touches us in ways that are rarely possible with anything else. It survives through time by evolving and adapting. Language transcends space and distance. This is why I’m able to keep such complex connections in tact even with 12,913 kilometers between us. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing that someday, one day, that distance will shrink until it’s 0. You have my word, we will hug, and laugh, and rejoice in each other one day. But are we not already doing those things my love? I can feel your pain when I bring up our 12,913 kilometer predicament. I can feel the phantom hugs you so long to give me when everything feels too hard to keep going. I can feel it all. Do you feel it all?

So maybe I should’ve began this by talking about the significance of numbers or perhaps the strange complexity of friendships and relationships, but none of that felt right for us darling. Instead, here I am, talking about language and love and laughter, and you, because I love you, in all the truest forms of the word. My dearest L, my lively friend, my comforting sister, let this be your strength. Let this distance hold us together and make us stronger rather than fill us with dread and despair.

Your hot chocolate and presents are ready, love. I have the movie on the screen and we have the rest of tomorrow to escape into new worlds.

Are you ready?

Sincerely,

B