For those you love . . .

I *know*--since you read my stuff--that you are the kind of person who says "I love you" all the time to those who are important to you.

Maybe you don't *say* it but you close your emails or letters to those who are truly important to you with those words--and it's good that you do.

But what about those *other* people who are important to you? By that I mean the writers, musicians, actors, artists of all kinds, who enrich your life with their music, their films, their words, their work . . . whatever it may be.

You may think that, say, Bruce Springsteen, is accustomed to getting appreciative emails, cards, and letters from his fans--and he probably is. He probably gets thousands every month. But it still means something to him--he is a human being and we all want people to love us. If you're a Springsteen fan (and I can personally take or leave him, really) you should let him know that his music is important to you--he may never actually read your letter, email, whatever, himself, and you may never get a response, but you can feel good about letting him know that he impacted your life in a positive way.

I've always done that. I read a book that blows me away I'm writing to the author about it. Sometimes I never hear anything. More often than not, though, I do--I have cards and letters from Asimov, Stephen King, Roger Zelazny, Phillip K. Dick . . . All of those guys except King are dead now, but they knew that I loved their work, that it made a difference in my life. It means something to me, that they knew, and they were one-and-all nice guys who appreciated the effort it took for me to write to them.

So, drop your favorite artists a line, let them know you dig their stuff. It doesn't have to be much. Just a reminder that their work is important to somebody out there, that they aren't wasting their time and effort slaving away at what they do. We all have our moments of self-doubt and appreciation and encouragement from those who enjoy our work goes a long way to fight that.

I'm just sayin'.