Last year I decided to start a letter writing campaign. The difference with this campaign from any other was that the participants were not instructed to write to any specific person. In fact, they could write to their dog, they could write to their grandmother, they could write to their sister, they could even write to themselves, as long as the piece of mail went through the United States Postal Service system.
The event was fairly popular. The Roanoke Times featured the event in a CornerShot (http://www.roanoke.com/extra/cornershot/wb/306938) and my university also did a piece on the event (http://hollins.edu/news2/?p=1333). The event was extended to over a thousand people and enough people enjoyed it that they requested a second day to write letters.
As a child, I remember receiving chain mail in the stack of bills for my mother. I don't know if this was just a thing of the 90s or if it just stopped after emails became mainstream, but it was so exciting. The letter would read something along the lines of someone wanting to break a Guinness World Record by having the longest-running chain of letters. You receive the letter, you make a copy of it, you send it to five friends, and each of them sends it to five friends and so on.
Even better was receiving birthday cards. For the week leading up to my birthday, I checked the mail box religiously (and still do) because to see a card just for me, to know that someone was thinking of me, made me happy. And why shouldn't it? We like to be considered and thought of from time to time.
For a while, I had pen pals in Germany and the United States. Eventually those communications dropped off and, unfortunately, I haven't found any really good pen pal sites. Certainly there are websites out there, but none of them are organized very well, nor are they easy to navigate. If my HTML skills were better, I would consider making a new page myself.
Since going to college, I have become a more avid letter-writer. I write to my family and my boyfriend most frequently. I found it helps to curb homesickness. Having something from my family that I can hold in my hands makes all the difference in the world. Plus, again, it's nice to know that they think of me. They may say so while we're on the phone or Skyping ("Oh, I was thinking of you today when I...") but this is proof of it. (Not that I don't believe them when they say they thought of me.) I sometimes write extended family to say hello and let them know how I'm doing. I've received mail from a friend who is studying abroad in France, too. I also tend to write to my grandmother who, even though she can no longer see what I've written or drawn for her, loves to receive the letters. Family members who visit her (and possibly the nursing staff at her current residence) read the letters to her and describe whatever it is I've drawn (which usually includes birds, which are her favorite).
In addition to writing the letters themselves, I also really enjoy just having a good piece of stationery. The writing utensil is also immensely important -- I was lucky enough to accept a fountain pen from my boyfriend in the spring, a present for completing my sophomore year of college successfully. I love how the ink pools and shines on the page before drying. I love how it scratches and scrapes against the rough paper and glides and slides on smooth paper. I love adding inked rubber stamp images to my letters and the envelopes which house them. I love putting a sticker on the back of the envelope -- my little way to ensure only the person it's intended for reads it (if someone else reads it before them, the sticker will tear). I love choosing what stamp I put on the front of the envelope and always try to make it match the content of the letter, whether my recipients realize it or not.
Since the dawn of the internet and email, handwritten letters have been in decline. Recently, the USPS announced they will no longer be delivering paper mail on Saturdays come August. This is largely because they are losing money in doing so. Not enough people are sending paper mail any more and no one relies on the USPS to pay bills when they can pay them online for free. I understand that, during a press conference, the US Postmaster General noted that, "You can't beat free." Yes, you have to pay forty-eight cents to send a letter, but isn't it worth it? Forty-eight cents and you give someone a piece of you to hold and keep, you uphold a tradition, you support a system that has hardly failed in all the years they've been in service.
This year, I am repeating my "Write a Letter Day." I hope you will join me in sending at least one letter on April 30 this year. Below is the link to the Facebook event to remind you and encourage others to participate (yes, I realize the irony).
http://www.facebook.com/events/538608266150465/?fref=ts
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