version 1: the letter
"If we happen, under certain circumstances, to have written and sealed and despatched a letter to a friend, which, however, does not find him, but is brought back to us, and we open it at the distance of some considerable time, a singular emotion is produced in us, on breaking up our own seal, and conversing with our altered self as with a third person."
#Goethe #WilhelmMeister #ThomasCarlyle #vol1book2ch1
version 2: the toot
"If we happen, under certain circumstances, to have written and sealed and despatched a [toot] to [the Fediverse], and at the distance of some considerable time it is brought back to us [by a belated boost], and we open it, a singular emotion is produced in us, on breaking up our own seal, and conversing with our altered self as with a third person."