Originally started on February 8, 2020 & updated April 23, 2020 amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
Dear Brynn,
I share in your grateful spirit! Whatever purposes this life offers, one such purpose is most assuredly to appreciate moments with these unexpected and enriching connections encountered along the way. Moments with new ideas, familiar laughs, and feelings of community. I read recently that the human heart produces a magnetic field that can be felt, sometimes from feet away from the body. I can feel my love’s heartbeat, as when I am with Akiko my feet fall with the gravity of her beat. In you, I also sense such powerful magnetism. From the vibe of the crowd at your coming home party that was hosted by your lovely parents to the playful connection I see with you and your partner Dave to the electrified attention of the crowd listening to your poetry at the San Joaquin River Conservancy, your positive impact on this community is abundantly clear and so too is how you have connected hearts. The work you are doing individually and with the Yonsei Memory Project is outstanding, and I feel blessed to share this time in space and existence with you.
This new year brings me continued challenges at work. I am working with a difficult population (indigent folks charged with serious criminal offenses) in an even more difficult situation. 2020 is an astonishing number to think of as a year to be alive. The last line of the second paragraph of your letter, “These letters perhaps mark a moment on the brink of some subtle, coming transformation,” is a bridge to thoughts I journey with often. It was a moment not long ago, not too unlike this one, yet radically foreign, that my current consciousness, myself…did not exist. And neither did you, or anyone else. And yet how many stories of human history have been told, have been lost? What dreams have been fulfilled, what tragedies have been suffered? I cannot begin to wrap my head around this all. What is this reality we find ourselves in? Why when a photon is measured is it found in only one location, but mathematics can prove that it exists in two? Do the decisions we make in this life bring our consciousnesses into alternate universes? Is a virus nature’s way of stabilizing a dying earth?
As I continue to grow and allow my mind to be flexible, I realize more and more just how few questions I know the answer to. In this great time of uncertainty, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic I certainly do not know what my life will look like in one year, in five, or a decade. I do not even know what it will look like tomorrow. It is unclear whether traditions and norms of yesterday will reemerge when the dust of the pandemic settles. Whatever the case, I do know that I feel blessed to be here, now in this moment, taking a deep breath, and experiencing the feeling of air. The feeling of writing this letter to you, who has inspired so many people, and who has become a dear friend. The feeling of being in community with other people, living this life, at this exact moment in time. Thank you for your letter, and for including me on this beautiful project. I am honored to be included and humbled by the people you surround yourself with.
Best regards,
Naser