29 The Messenger

I do my work as a book editor at home. I sit facing my computer or sheets of paper on my desk in my room, surrounded by books and sounds of music that come from the radio, my discs or internet radio stations: I erase and change the text before me until I have created clear, corrected texts. Today, when communication via e-mail is so convenient and the transfer of texts is so simple and fast, there is almost no need to meet people in order to transmit or receive pages with editorial symbols. Everything is done on the computer and the texts pass quickly from hand to hand. The exchange of opinions that accompanies the work on texts is done by e-mail and from time to time telephone conversations serve to clarify matters. Face to face meetings are almost superfluous. From the initial communication, to the order for the work, the editing process, contact with the authors and finally the payment – everything is done without a face to face meeting. You sit at home and edit books for people, publishers as well as research and publication institutions, without having seen each other.

From time to time I need the mail service to receive books and texts that are sent to me. Mail creates contact. Not with the person who wrote the texts that I edit, nor with those who transferred them to me to edit, nevertheless it is contact. I leave my house and walk to the local mail branch. Almost invariably I meet someone there that I know. I observe the people standing near me and listen to the conversations they have with each other and on their cell phones. When my turn comes, the clerk hands me my mail. Sometimes a messenger comes to my house to deliver or receive a package.

But since the "doarmat", the automatic service for receiving mail packages, my work can be accomplished without even seeing the messenger.