I read somewhere that somebody had figured out that the first letter ever written was by a woman named Queen Atossa of Persia around 500 BCE. Whoever said that went onto say that the letter she wrote was the most important letter of all time. Never found out why. Or who she sent it to, or how it got there, or if he or she wrote back. I mean, it was the first. What was the receiver to think? If nobody had ever gotten a letter delivered how would they know what to do with it? What the next step was? Simple enough today - ignore it, or write back. But how long did that take? Did whoever got this first letter ask around town - "I just got this thing from Queen Atossa... not sure what to do about it..." And then I wondered: how did the Queen come up with the idea? Was she waiting for somebody to show up so she could have a conversation? Finally she couldn’t wait any longer and decided to write him or her a note? Was there a pen by the phone, or something? A ream of paper conveniently stowed in a desk drawer?
