Letter writing is a lost art today, but for hundreds of years it was mankind’s chief method of personal communication. In today’s world, rising postage costs, rude postal clerks, laziness, illiteracy, bad manners, and the convenience of electronic communication have relegated personal letters to the horse and buggy days of yesteryear. That’s both a good and a bad thing.
It’s bad in the sense that there’s nothing quite like the thrill of receiving a personal letter. I used to stock up on thank you cards, greeting cards, stickers, and colorful stamps, because I knew how much people loved receiving items like that in the mail. They still do, but I’ve had so many problems with postal employees, the cost of stamps, and the lack of good greeting cards and stickers available these days that I’ve all but given up on personal letters myself.
The death of letter writing is good because email is so much cheaper, and because we are no longer limited to the creativity of the greeting card and sticker makers. With millions of images and decorations available, we can create some of the most imaginative letters in the world. Like using this image, which I got from one of DCG’s great post, and which is a personal favorite of mine. I use it on a lot of my emails.
All of which leads me to the purpose of this post. We know how much we appreciate notes from friends (and even strangers), yet we rarely think of how much others would appreciate notes from us. With the ability to create our own greeting cards, and with the entire process costing us nothing, we have a marvelous opportunity, virtually at our fingertips, to uplift the lives of others merely by typing a few words and adding an image.
Write a note to someone you know, or don’t know, expressing thanks, interest, sympathy, appreciation, congratulations, or whatever it is you wish to convey, and send it off today. Make it a regular practice. Do it weekly, or even daily. It only takes a minute or two, and you have no idea how much of an effect that greeting might have. It could reach the recipient in a time of crisis and completely change their life. You just never know.
