Years ago, in the pure analog days, Travis and Yuko wrote a message on a piece of paper. Not to each other. It is unlikely they knew each other. Travis wrote to Caroline, Yuko wrote to David. Those two notes drifted in place and after time found their way to me, the first in a record and the other in a dictionary.

I found the note Travis wrote to Caroline in a used record. Air Supply’s Greatest Hits. Bought with some other records many years ago, and for many years didn’t know it had David’s note inside. A record I listen rarely and perhaps I would have sold if not for the note in it.

Yuko wrote to David and perhaps placed the note in the Kanji and Kana dictionary I found it in. I can’t read Kanji or Kana, at some point I thought of getting into learning and bought that used vintage dictionary, but never got into it.

Writing on a piece of paper was (and for some still is) a way of communication, whether to inform, flirt, remember, aknowledge, praise, or a way of creation by means of writing lyrics, poetry, or drawing. The majority were small, usually torn from a larger piece of paper and placed in a wallet, pocket, desk, board, box etc… most times upon reading the message, it was thrown in the trash bin, or forgotten -especially if it was placed within something- and many times kept intensionally, especially if it was from someone special.

A personal note to someone, marks a certain moment in time. But it only tells a ‘stranger’ something only for the moment it was written. Like a photograph. The complete story before, during and after, most times is not revealed. It is only known to the ones involved.

Nasos Papathanasiou