It’s an old-fashioned almost obsolete task, but I don’t have a highly functional cell phone, nor do I want or expect one. And it’s a melancholy task, long overdue, and many people in it are now dead–notably both my parents. Then again, I didn’t have a son-in-law the last time I copied over. At the rate I’m going, I may not live long enough to do this again, and maybe I won’t care
However, it makes me feel like a human being. I’ve been examining this a lot recently. Certain things make me feel like “a person” and they all date from the culture I was raised in, a second generation Jew in New York City. For example, the things that make me feeling human include:
1. Listening to opera
and
2. Having more than one nice winter coat
The origins of this are clear, as I was raised in the girls’ coat business and had four grandparents who loved opera.
Of course many things make me feel like a writer, a woman, a good person, even a New Mexican. But certain activities–voting in person, copying an address book–seem more primary. So I relish them when I discover them.
And you?
Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond
Santa Fe Literary Scene, Poetry, Land Art, New Mexico
Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond 
I did that task a year ago when my old address book was worn out and pages used up after about 15 years. Thought-provoking and emotional. But also rather comforting. WTG, Miriam.
I just bought a new address book. It’s been about 15 years. Let’s see who’s left. It may be an elegy.
Sort of its own poem!
I like to send letters to people who holiday cards come forwarded to my old address. The people I forgot to notify but that I want to hear from in the future.