-={ Wednesday, 09 March 2016, 09:00:33 -0500 }=-

Hey Shawn!

 SH> Reply to the message and in another xterm window opens up with
 SH> Nano displaying the message so I can read it. ;)

  vi -o reply.msg orig.msg

The above will open a split display in the linux terminal with the reply in the
top window and the message you are replying to in the bottom.  Also using -O
instead of -o will do a vertical split with the two messages side by side. 
Personally I prefer the -o horizontal split with the active message in the top
half of the screen (terminal).

Life is good,
Maurice

... Don't cry for me I have vi.
--- GNU bash, version 4.3.42(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)