During a not so distant bout with insomnia, I became extremely bored – more bored than usual. The standard pacing, staring, thinking, writing, reading, and listening to music was not enough. I needed something new and I knew better than to wander the streets (recollections of admonishments from authority figures), so I decided to write letters to people – people I didn’t know. I opened up the phone book (remember those?) and picked a name at random. My first letter was rather pointless and rambling, but it was fun and during it I had an idea for a better letter. I decided to write apology letters to these complete strangers. Sometimes I kept them short and vague like, “I’m sorry I bumped into you on the street,” but I often wrote long and elaborate stories. Then, I mailed them. I have no idea what became of them, but thinking about how these people reacted keeps me up at night.
