My letter I won't send

[Depression = 72% of members]

Tomorrow's will surely be different.

Dear D.,

Thank you for dropping me like a stone. You have no idea how painful your actions were, and whatever you think you understand, there is no justification for your treatment of me. You aren't off the hook. But thank you anyhow, because for the last two years that we were in each other's lives, you were holding me back from writing my book. Keeping you on some kind of even keel (or trying to) siphoned off emotional and intellectual energy, to say nothing of time, that could have gone into my own work, which was emotionally taxing in the extreme. Whatever lip service you gave to my talent, you had no concept of what it would mean to support me in it. Now that you have been gone for over a year, lo and behold, I've finished a draft of my book.

It won't say so anywhere in my book, but here is a dedication:

I dedicate this book to D for breaking my heart and freeing me up to follow my own dreams.

[steelwork]

Tomorrow's will surely be different.

Dear D.,

Thank you for dropping me like a stone. You have no idea how painful your actions were, and whatever you think you understand, there is no justification for your treatment of me. You aren't off the hook. But thank you anyhow, because for the last two years that we were in each other's lives, you were holding me back from writing my book. Keeping you on some kind of even keel (or trying to) siphoned off emotional and intellectual energy, to say nothing of time, that could have gone into my own work, which was emotionally taxing in the extreme. Whatever lip service you gave to my talent, you had no concept of what it would mean to support me in it. Now that you have been gone for over a year, lo and behold, I've finished a draft of my book.

It won't say so anywhere in my book, but here is a dedication:

I dedicate this book to D for breaking my heart and freeing me up to follow my own dreams.

[VitaminC]

That's a powerful letter, Steelwork.

Your ability to survive and even thrive is there plain to see.

How do you feel having written it, I wonder?