My mother passed on in 1995 at age 85. During her long life she was a writer, not a novelist, or a short story writer. Instead, she was active in what’s called a Round Robin. There are hundreds of them still in full swing. For several months after she passed on I received Round Robins which I mailed on for her, so as not to break the chain. Also, several of her earlier Round Robin friends wrote letters wanting to know what happened to her.

She even wrote to a school teacher on some island somewhere between the United States and the UK. The address was Atlantic Ocean. When I took her to the post office to buy stamps and mail this special letter the local postmaster argued that this school teacher never receive the letter with such a vague address. But she stick her guns, as it were, and the Atlantic Ocean lady responded to that letter in a few weeks. Crazy.

For those who aren’t familiar with a Round Robin I’ll write a brief description:

Mom initiated a letter – length or subject was not important – and mailed it to a friend. The friend wrote a letter and included it with Mom’s and mailed them both on to a third person. It continued on in that manner until the day a fat envelope was delivered to Mom’s mail box, containing eight or ten letters in that “round”. She would then write a new letter, put it in place of her original, and the process began all over again.

Belonging to a half-dozen of these Robins was what got her out of bed each morning to check that mailbox.

Something similar to this could be established with emails rather than snail mail. Someone could initiate an email and send it to a destination. Using the forward function the second person could add his/her letter above or below and email it on until it completed the circuit.

It could be called an:

e-Round Robin.