A Month of LettersI have always loved getting letters. I am also old enough to remember the days of paper letters sent “Snail Mail”. I wrote to my friends in other parts of the globe and received in return a tangible hand written missive. Those days seem long ago. With modern technology like emailing, text and instant messaging the art of the paper letter seems to have all but disappeared from most of our lives.
Which is why I'm doing this. I want to reconnect with the people I care about in a real and genuine way. How often have I dashed off a quick note in email or FaceBook message, something brief and riddled with net speak like “LOL” poor English like “gunna” and “ya know?” I'm sure the notes were appreciated, but how much more would a real letter be?
So this is me trying to single-handedly re-ignite the letter writing fire by this my challenge!
The Challenge:To write (and SEND) at
least one real honest to goodness letter every day for 30 days. I had thought to insist they all be paper letters sent snail mail but lets be honest who has that kind of time? There's reason why back in the day I WROTE a lot of letters but very few actually made it through the laborious process of finding its way into an envelope that was properly addressed AND stamped and then mailed. So email is fine, heck even text messaging or Instant messaging I suppose so long as it starts out with the persons name or even “Dear so and so” and ends with “Sincerely” or some other nice way of closing it and your name. I will also say it should be at LEAST two paragraphs and no
“Dear so and so,
I wanted to write you a letter, so I am.
Did you know I really like waffles?
Sincerely,
Me”Does NOT count, a paragraph by my definitions is at least a handful of complete sentences strung together. :D
That's it, write letters to people you know well or not so well, family and friends, and even friends of friends. Can't think of anyone to write? You could write a solider
http://www.soldiersangels.org/ or ask for recommendations from people you DO know so you could find yourself a new pen-pal! Be creative, the point is to connect with others through the power of letter writing.
Feel free to send me letters you're especially proud of, and I may post some or parts from some of the ones I write. Also I know its not the 1st of the month which would probably make this easier but heck, if I put this off I may not do it. So I'll start now, on the 21st of September my Month of Letters!
Deb
