Recently in an episode of the television programme NCIS, one of the characters needed a person to write to. She thought for a while and eventually settled on George Washington. As one of the fathers of her nation he would be the ideal person to whom she could express her weighty concerns. This seemed to me like an excellent idea; in my case it would be someone to whom I could tell stories, share my opinions, express my thoughts and my emotions and give substance to my aspirations, all the while knowing that there could be no fallout.
Patently George Washington would hardly be the person for me. But then who would be? There was a film that came out in 2008 called The Reader starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. In it the main character, Hanna Schmitz, allowed herself to be sacrificed to exonerate others as she held a secret she would not reveal.
At one stage in the story Hanna was read to by a young man called Michael, hence the title of the film. Her role is quite passive and receptive to being read to by Michael, and so she seems like the ideal person for me to write to, as when I write I am also reading the text in my mind. She is also a fictional character so there should be little chance of me causing her offence, embarrassment or distress. The downside of course will be that I shall get no feedback from the person I am writing to, but isn't this also the point of writing to such a person?
So there we have it - I shall write to Hanna Schmitz. She will be my sounding board, my muse, my regulator, my inspiration, my conscience and I shall be her reader. There is so much to write down, so much to tell her, so many questions to ask, so many thoughts to express and so many stories. I feel the need to do this now as I am getting no younger and have begun to realise that I am in danger of forgetting ever more as the years tick by.
