Benjamin Franklin letter
How do you feel when you get a real handwritten letter from someone, especially a good friend? Is it different than an email? Is it different than a typed note? My Mother used to receive handwritten letters from one of her friends and they were peppered with creative illustrations. It was a work of art and filled with humor. Even the envelope had illustrations on it in all colors. I don’t know what happened to those letters, but I remember them even today.
Handwritten notes and letters have personality.
Reading and looking at handwritten notes or poetry or manuscripts, you can feel the heart of the person who wrote them.
How about a campaign to bring back the handwritten letter. I’m starting my own campaign because I realized that email disappears, even texts. Someone can put an erase date on your emails. Even if it’s in your in box, you will only be able to keep it for a certain time, then poof, it’s disappeared by special software. Also, texts on your phone.
The other day I tried to access a news article and got the message, 404, Oops! It was disappointing. The news article was less than 3 years old yet it was disappeared. Is that what will happen to stuff people put on the internet?
Or, a website is redone and then you can’t find the link to the article or document you needed or wanted to share with someone? Then all the links you had to that article, video or document no longer work.
We think technology is so great and that the internet allows us to access anything that we want. Sorry, but that is totally false. After I had trouble accessing the news article I started thinking how ephemeral the internet really is. What happens if the software and hardware changes in the future and we can’t access certain data?
Some authors write their books on handwritten manuscripts. Even if they have an electronic version, the handwritten manuscript will outlast a computer hard drive crash.
Tell me your thoughts about handwritten letters & notes. I tried to give someone a little gift of note cards the other day and the person said, “What would I use those for?” I realized that some people never write letters. They have lived their lives emailing and texting. I decided to revisit the tradition of writing notes.
Do you write handwritten notes?
Also, if we write more love letters, handwritten thank you notes, and other letters and send them by U.S. mail, then we can help increase first class mail.
So, let’s all write at least one handwritten letter a week—or more. Once I started this adventure I almost ran out of notes to send!
Let’s send handwritten notes to our Senators, Congressmen, the President, and of course to Postmaster General Donahoe and the Board of Governors about our concerns. The management at USPS claims they want to listen to their customers. OK, let’s give them an opportunity!
Happy Writing!
The Truth About the Post Office 
Just found your blog after seeing your comment on Hannah Brencher’s TED talk. I love writing letters and notes, even to people I don’t know. I love to write and found myself NOT doing it. I think those I thought would enjoy it most, my grandmothers, my 4-H leader, had passed away and I couldn’t think someone of my own generation would appreciate what I had to say in a letter. I got over that by saying “who cares…I’ll write to them anyway”. It has been so rewarding for me and I hear from many of my recipients who are surprised and happy and grateful to be receiving something personal in the mailbox. In 2013, I set a goal of writing the equivalent of one snail mail item per day. I just had to have written 365 pieces of snail mail by the end of the year. I met my goal at 11:59pm on December 31, 2013 by writing a letter to same person I wrote my first letter to, my sister. I got so much out of that project. In 2014, I cut myself a little slack and just planned to write as much as I could. I sent about 280 pieces that year. I resumed my challenge in 2015 and am a little ahead at the moment. It brings me such pleasure to see my handwriting on the page, to see the stack of envelopes with their handwritten names and addresses, beautiful or fun return address labels and unique postage stamps ready to go in the mailbox. And then when I get a reply….sometimes in snail mail form…..or a mention on someone’s FB page, I get pleasure all over again. I see myself continuing this for some time to come.