My thoughts after reading "Coming and Going"

When I was ordering magazines in 2018, I had a sudden idea and subscribed to "Prose" magazine for a year. After the first issue of 2019 arrived, I never had time to read it. During the Chinese New Year, I happened to have some free time at home, so I casually browsed it.

"Coming and Going" is the first article in this magazine, written by Isaac Zhu. To be honest, when I watched it again, I didn’t pay attention at all. Because the article first contains a passage from an ancient poem by Ouyang Xiu (I won’t excerpt it, for fear that people will not understand it), I didn’t understand the meaning, so I got stuck here. After thinking about it the next day, I decided to skip this paragraph and continue with the rest. After reading it all at once, I realized that this article was about writing letters.

As the first paragraph of the article begins, there is actually not much to pay attention to when writing a letter. You can write however you want. The second paragraph follows immediately. The author started writing letters when he was in primary school, and he also mentioned that there was a fee for sending letters. At that time, the cost of sending letters was very expensive and could buy a lot of rice. After reading these two paragraphs, the first thing that came to my mind was that I had been writing letters to my primary school classmates in Wuhan since I was in fifth grade. My parents were too busy at work when I was young, so no one took care of me. So my parents sent me back to my hometown in Wuhan. My registered permanent residence was not in Wuhan, so I paid a high price and entered the first grade of a three-story elementary school. On the day of registration, I formed an indissoluble bond with Qin. Completed the third grade of elementary school. My parents took me back to Sichuan, and we exchanged mailing addresses. But after I came back, I was busy taking the entrance exam and learning to speak Sichuan dialect. Because my language skills were very poor, I learned Wuhan dialect but forgot Sichuan dialect. When I return to Sichuan, I have no choice but to learn to speak Sichuan dialect again. Moreover, I met many new classmates in school, so I never contacted Qin. One day in the fifth grade of elementary school, I suddenly saw Qin’s address, which started a long correspondence journey between me and her. This writing covers the time when we got married and had children. We encouraged and helped each other over the years, and there was no relationship. Broken. What I remember most is that my classmate went to Guangzhou for treatment due to retinal detachment and was unable to communicate with me. Her mother ghostwritten it and wrote about her personal experience, her sadness, her pain, and her lovelorn. This was the lowest point in her life. vulgar. What I can do is to comfort her, accompany her spiritually, and go through the most difficult time with her. She was in a depressed state for about a year. Later, her eyes were cured, but she also lost her job. After struggling for several years, I slowly got better. Now she has been married for more than ten years and has given birth to a well-behaved, sensible and beautiful daughter.

? The next few paragraphs of the article talk about the author's experience. It was during the period when he first had good relations with the "Soviet Union" and he wrote letters and made friends with many Soviet children. Of course, the content of the letter cannot be like what the author wrote at the beginning: Write however you want. Later, due to national reasons, he died without illness. Later, as an educated youth, the author went to remote rural areas. When I am idle in the countryside, I only look forward to one thing, which is to receive letters from home. The contents of letters exchanged at that time had to be written with great care. The author also wrote that the quality of people at that time was not high, and letters were sent to the commune. All letters were put in a basket and anyone could take them and read them, so everyone was even more careful about what they wrote. Not only should you be careful about the content, but also if there are food stamps, money, etc. included in the letter, if the letter is lost, these will be lost as well, and the loss will be heavy. At my age, I have never experienced any of these things. At that time, in order to save money, I soaked stamps in water so that they could be used again next time. I prefer collecting stamps. In order to remove the stamps from the envelope intact, soaking it in water is a very good method.

Writing letters is a way of communication and contact. I remember when I graduated from college, there were no pagers, let alone mobile phones or WeChat. When we graduated, everyone left each other’s contact information—home addresses. After graduation, everyone went their separate ways. A few years later, I had a good relationship and wanted to contact him, but the page full of addresses had disappeared. By chance, I found that piece of paper. We had not contacted our good sisters in the same dormitory for several years. Although we had mobile phones at this time, we did not have phone calls to each other. With the mentality of giving it a try, I sent a postcard to my best friend with my phone number on it, hoping that she would receive it. A few months later, I received a strange phone call from my best friend. She went to Yunnan after graduation. This time she went home to visit relatives and received my postcard. At this point, we finally got in touch. At that time, I was especially grateful to the post office and myself for sending such a postcard. I found it Lost friendships.

? In the last few paragraphs of the article, the author talks about the privacy of letters, and also talks about the three steps that the author goes through in order to submit a manuscript: writing, sending, and rejecting the manuscript. Write the manuscript again, send the manuscript again, and reject the manuscript again. This series was completed by letters. I have never submitted a manuscript, so I don’t know how difficult this line of work is. However, regarding the privacy of letters, I think it is related to a person’s quality. I have to give my parents a lot of praise in this regard. Every time I receive a letter, when I go home, one of my parents will tell me that there is a letter from me, and they happily go to get the letter. Each time, the letter is intact and lying there quietly. My parents never read my letters or what I wrote. I think they gave me enough respect, so I have developed the habit of not reading other people's things since I was a child.

But for other people, I was really speechless. They opened my letters without my permission and didn't say anything. I criticized them angrily, but he actually said plausibly: Is there anything I shouldn't read in this? Not only that, but he would also make fun of my classmates with the content in their letters. My classmate wrote to me and told me about her marriage, her difficulties, and her confusion. This was a sign of her trust in me. Although I was thousands of miles away and couldn't really help, I could at least give her some comfort. After reading my letters privately, you still want to make fun of me. Is this really a good person? Later, I will carefully collect my letters and no longer let unqualified people read them.

Finally, the author said that due to the changes of the times, the mailboxes for sending letters are all dusty, and now people no longer send letters. Actually, I often travel. Everywhere there is a post office, I will go shopping and buy some local stamps. Although stamps now only have a commemorative function, going to see the local stamps is also a good idea. An understanding of culture. At the local post office, there will be many postcards of local scenery for sale. You can send them to friends locally or to yourself, which is also a kind of souvenir. I remember that I went to Taiwan one year and spent more than 60 yuan in the 101 Building to buy a postcard and a stamp and sent them back to Sichuan. Unfortunately, I have not received them until now. I was really crazy at the time. Such an expensive thing was lost. Because of this, when I later traveled around the country, I would never send these things again. However, when I traveled abroad in the past few years, I would take some photos of local people. After returning home, I would develop them and send them to them. After receiving them, some people would call me to express their gratitude. After some letters were sent, there was no news, and I don’t know if they received them, because some places are too remote. But at the very least, I know that I took pictures of them and sent them, and I fulfilled my responsibility. This also gives me some comfort.

After reading this article, I was deeply moved. I remembered a lot of past events. Letters played a big role in my childhood. At that time, in order to keep up with the times, I had several pen names. One of them not only became my pen name, but also became QQ later. My first name, my WeChat name, has been used to this day, which is equivalent to my second name in life. From the fifth grade of elementary school to getting married and having children, the letters we exchanged with classmates record the naive thoughts of our youth, but that was also my experience of growing up. After several moves, there are not many letters left. The letters in my hand now are not only a souvenir, but also our beautiful memories. Now I will collect them well. For me, writing letters is not only the sharing of information, but also companionship. Just like back then, I was always with my classmate when she was at the lowest point in her life. After watching her get out of the trough of life, what greeted her was the beauty of life. Times have progressed, and everything needs to be contacted via WeChat, QQ, or phone calls, but I think the role of writing letters is irreplaceable and will allow the two people who write letters to have a deeper emotional exchange. It's just that the speed of sending and receiving letters is too slow, and it is gradually eliminated by the fast pace of life, and the feelings between people gradually become indifferent.

After reading this article, I also wrote a lot of my own feelings. Here I also want to share a story with you. When I was traveling in Xinjiang, there was a construction site near the Falcon Terrace in Karajun. When the construction workers saw me taking photos with my camera, they proactively greeted me and asked me to take some photos for them. I was very happy to take photos of them, and in addition to taking a group photo, I also took a single photo of each of them. They were very happy. When I asked them for their address and prepared to send it to them, they actually said they didn't have an address. This was the first time I heard that someone actually didn't have an address. If you work outside, you can also send it home. When I asked them how to give them these photos, they smiled and didn't ask for them. I had tears in my eyes at that time, and I didn't know why. To this day, these photos are still on my computer and I have nowhere to send them. Perhaps this is why letters are gradually being replaced.