Post, USPS and ether

Wrote an e-note to an old friend from high school and college. He's mailed letters to me and emailed me over the years pretty regularly, with updates about his life and clippings from articles he's read or written (he's a reporter in another country), but I have only written him once or twice a year, maybe less.

I used to be a really great correspondent. I actually used to write letters to friends, and would receive a letter once a week from someone somewhere. This was before the days of email, about 15 years ago. I don't know what happened to me, but it's been a gradual thing, this falling away from corresponding. I guess part of the reason is that I developed a circle of local friends, so I fell out of touch with distant friends because the local friends took more of my time. But how unlikable is that? I ditch the old friends for the new? Who do I think I am?

Don't let me do that to you, man. OK, I'm not making any local friends, but still, when I do, now that I am aware of this problem, I'll be able to avoid it, right? I want to be posting my friends, not post-friends.

OK, I'm sounding somewhat strange to myself, maybe even desperate and self-involved. Stop me now.