The Importance of Correspondence

 by Regina Gort


Do you remember mail? When is the last time you received a letter with a stamp delivered by the U.S. postal service(ie snail mail)?

As a kid growing up in Texas, I remember walking out to the mailbox. It was an event. I'd walk down a dusty road with heighten expectations. What would come today?

Maybe a letter from my grandmother, Ruth. She lived in the tundra of Michigan, where we vacationed every summer. She started my obsession with mail. She wrote to me on a regular basis. Before I could even write her back, I would dictate a response and my mom would carefully write down each word.

My grandmother, Ruth

Once I was old enough to write my own letters, I wrote to my summer best friend. Her family had a cottage on Lake Superior next to our family's cottage. Our grandmother's encouraged us to write and a love affair with mail was solidified. Every year we wrote about what was happening in school and of course about boys and bands. We adorned them with stickers and glitter and paint. This went on for years. Some years better than others.
I signed up for pen pals in school. They were from exotic places like Spain and New York.

Today, I still try to write at least one letter a week. And on really productive weeks I can get out a letter a day.

It's an art that is being lost with every email, text, status update and tweet. But it is receiving somewhat of a revival. It's now vintage.  And vintage is cool.

I was so excited to hear about The Happy Mail project by Juliana L. Brandt. Basically you send encouragement via snail mail. No names, just addresses. All  it needs to be is words of motivation, inspiration, warm fuzzy thoughts, or funny anecdotes. I am in.

So as you sit in front of that screen to type another email, consider for moment putting a stamp on it.