I have a mentor who is a former US Ambassador. She served under every President from Carter to Obama. The Secretaries of State she served with included Kerry, Albright, Clinton, Rice, Schulz, and her favorite, Powell. Kissinger also taught her. She once met Nelson Mandela. 

She is one of the first people I sent my writing to and she said it was really good. I wrote more because of her. She is also a lover of poetry and travel. Recently, I showed her the reflections and stories I wrote for and about ———. She said they were lovely. I actually sent them to you so you could learn more about me because although we have known each other for 30 years or so, you didn’t actually know that much about me. 

By writing you, I thought that I would be just retelling the ones I originally wrote, which others have also mentioned as beautiful and should be published. But these are somehow better. I can now remember and recollect many buried memories – not just bad stuff but also the good.

It took me a month each to write the two major documents I sent you.  I’ve written for a living and I’ve been generally competent to good. But even I know these are special. The ones I wrote for you are among the best.  The very first one I wrote in January, people find powerful but the recent ones because and for you, they are different. 

Life is funny. It also comes full circle. You actually are the person I’ve written the most physical letters to. This happened in college before email became the norm. We used to write each other regularly although it was innocent.

And now it’s you again.