Letter writing is a great way to celebrate the International Day of Words

Today, November 23, is the International Day of Words, an initiative of the Cesar Egido Serrano Foundation of Spain. The organization aims to share the idea of "The word as a link of humanity, and against all forms of violence."

According to the foundation's Facebook page, "On this day, more than ever, words will become the bond of humankind where people with the same ideals of using words and dialogue as a tool for understanding between different cultures and religions will gather."

That sounds like, to me, a great concept to combine with letter writing. Through writing letters, especially with international penpals, we can better understand the people of the world and their various cultures. 

So, if you've been waiting for the right time to start writing more letters, to seek out penpals or to reconnect with people you used to communicate with, today is a great day to put that in motion. Write a letter today and then carry on the spirit of International Day of Words every day with your letter writing. 

Get to know people through correspondence. Share information about your life and your culture. Ask questions about their lives and cultures. Open your mind to new ideas; learn everything you can about the world beyond your mailbox.

Happy International Day of Words, and happy letter writing! 

Just a quick letter

Sometimes, it takes more effort to write a quick note than it does to pen a massive missive. To write a short letter, you have to organize your thoughts and edit your words.

Here's one quote on the topic:

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."

-- Mark Twain

Long or short, write a letter today.

Letter Writing Concerto

I'm sure a lot of people listen to music while they write letters, and we've even discussed on this blog songs about letters, but did you know that you could listen to a four-movement concerto for violin and orchestra that is titled "The Lost Art of Letter Writing"?

About a year ago, Australian composer Brett Dean won the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for the work, which was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman, was chosen for the prize from among 145 entries worldwide.

According to the information released about the concerto, each movement in the half-hour concerto is based on a 19th-century letter, with a violin evoking the mood of each letter as it plays the alternate roles of writer and recipient. Authors of the letters include composers Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf, artist Vincent Van Gogh and Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

You can read more about the concerto at the Boosey & Hawkes Web site, and you can listen to a sample of the music here.

From the Boosey & Hawkes' site, here are some of the composer's notes:

Not only is letter writing becoming a lost art, but one could argue that handwriting itself is an endangered skill. Aspects of my daughters’ education, in particular its heavy reliance on electronic stimuli, have reinforced my view that we are genuinely losing touch with the tactile element of written communication. A recent article in an Australian newspaper points out that the proportion of personal letters amongst the total number of sent articles handled by the national postal authority, Australia Post, has declined from 50% in 1960 to 13% nowadays. Sure, we stay in touch arguably more than ever, via telephone, email and messaging, but that too has undoubtedly changed the nature of communicating.

These were then the initiating thoughts behind my Violin Concerto, ‘The Lost Art of Letter Writing’, co-commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie and the Stockholm Philharmonic for the esteemed soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann, to whom the work is dedicated with my great admiration. Each movement is prefaced by an excerpt from a 19th Century letter of one kind or another, ranging from private love-letter to public manifesto. Each title refers to the place and year the letter was written. The violin plays the alternate roles of both an author and a recipient of letters, but perhaps more importantly, the solo part conjures something of the mood of each of the different letters.

Indeed, this news came out about a year ago, and if you read Wendy's A Passion for Letter Writing blog, you might have read about Brett Dean and this concerto earlier this year, but it's an interesting piece, so I think it bears mentioning again.

Reasons to Write Letters

Why write a letter? Here are a few reasons to write a letter:

~ To share some good news with a friend or loved one
~ To wish someone a happy birthday, a joyous Hanukkah, merry Christmas, happy New Year, a good day, etc.
~ To introduce yourself to a new friend/penpal
~ To respond to a letter you've received
~ To thank someone for something
~ To apologize for something...maybe that it's taken you so long to write back
~ To offer an encouraging word to someone who needs a little boost


Those are just a few ideas. Why do you write letters? Do you have other reasons?

A Letter Can Make A Difference

Those of us who write letters usually think that our letters can make a difference. Maybe we'll brighten a friend's day, or lend support to someone who needs a friend to lean on.

Sometimes, if we've written the right letter, we might make a more wide-spread difference. A complaint to a manufacturer might result in a problem being fixed or a faulty product being improved. A compliment letter to a boss might get a raise or at least some praise for a diligent employee. Often it takes more than one letter to change a politician's vote, but each letter counts.

A story from Colorado Springs, Colo., tells of a little boy's letter that made a difference. According to the story on KKTV.com, Quinn Cunningham wrote a letter to the city's street department. It seems the sidewalks at his sister's school did not have ramps for people with disabilities. Quinn knew that many students at the school have special needs, including his sister, although she's now a former student.

It's quite a story. There's a video interview at the site, too.

Have you ever written a letter that made a difference? Have you ever received a letter that made a difference in your life? Tell me about it!

Inspiring words

"After (my father) died, I realized that no one writes to me anymore. Handwriting is a disappearing art. I'm all for email, and thinking while typing, but why give up old habits for new? Why can't we have letter writing and email exchange in our lives? There are times when I want to trade all those years that I was too busy to sit with my dad and chat with him, and trade all those years for one hug. But too late. But that's when I take out his letters and I read them, and the paper that touched his hand is in mine, and I feel connected to him."

                    — Lakshmi Pratury
                    At the TED conference, a nonprofit conference devoted to Ideas Worth  Spreading.

Lakshmi Pratury gives a wonderful talk about letter writing and leaving a legacy. To see the entire, but short, talk, visit the TED Web site. (Just a note: it took a little while for the video to load on my computer, but it's worth waiting a few seconds.)

No US Mail today - It's Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, a day when we honor military veterans.  Some other countries  also celebrate a similar holiday today, Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.

In honor of the holiday, our post offices are closed and regular mail service is discontinued for the day.

If you're not getting mail today, take some time to visit the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum online.  Of special interest today may be the Victory Mail exhibit. It is all about how the U.S. dealt with the great volumes of mail during World War II. If you don't already know about it, the V-Mail story may surprise you.

You might also be interested in the War Letters: Lost and Found exhibit, which I discussed in an earlier blog post. Be sure to click through to the exhibit; it is fascinating with copies of the letters and the stories to go along with them.

Return to Sender

Shortly after I started this project, I realized that my project was just that...MY project, not everyone else's project. Although the letter writing process takes considerably more time than phone calls, e-mailing and texting, in the long run, it all happens fairly quickly. I write a letter and mail it off. A friend or family member gets the letter and writes me back...it all takes a week or two. Especially if we haven't seen or talked to one another for awhile, we generally catch up our lives in those two letters. Then what?


Like I said, this is my project. Just because I wanted to write a lot of letters this year, doesn't mean everyone I know wants to write a lot of letters or that they have time to do so. If I send off a speedy second letter, my letter's recipient might feel obligated to write again, even if he or she doesn't have time or much to say.

As I searched for more and more people to write to, I tracked down the addresses of "old" friends and acquaintances, many of whom I've never heard back from. Maybe my letters were lost in the system; maybe they just didn't have anything to say in reply. In all fairness, some of the letters went to people I haven't seen or heard from since high school.

All that is to say that I soon began looking for other people to write letters to. That's how I found the pen pal blogs, Web sites and forums. I've made some lovely new friends this way and have written a lot of letters without overburdening my close friends and family with too many letters.

Yesterday, after all these months of writing letters, I got a "Return to Sender" notice. I sent out a card and an introductory note to a girl whose name and address I found on sendsomething.net. She's probably been too busy with her life to update her profile, and I know that's always a chance I take when send off a letter to a stranger.

The most amazing thing to me (besides the fact that the old-fashioned "Return to Sender" rubber stamp is still used) is that I've only received one such notice. I've sent out so much mail, I wouldn't have been surprised to have gotten more returned letters.

"The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox"

Last week, a fellow letter writer, Jeremy, alerted me to an NPR segment I had missed. John Freeman, author of "The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox," was on the Diane Rehm show on Oct. 19, and you can still listen to the interview online! Just click here and then scroll down a little and choose your choice of audio programs under the "Listen to this segment" link on the page.

In the interview, Freeman talks about how he exchanged letters with his grandmother for many years, before she passed away last year.

"It was just the most wonderful way to spend time with her without being with her. The way that she wrote to me, it sort of taught me how to become a person and eventually an adult. Correspondence isn't just about sharing what happened in your day and other information ... especially to a young person, it's a way of teaching them ... how to experience and observe the world. So, I miss those letters quite a bit."

Freeman goes on to discuss how he uses e-mail and how important it is in everyday life. But, he also discusses how often the intended tone of an e-mail is misunderstood and how, in many cases, a letter written in your own handwriting is received as a gift.

"The nice thing about letters is that they move slowly and they have space and they have a kind of texture to them that, almost, novels do...I think there's a speed at which the mind works, which moves with the hand and travels at the speed of letters and that I sort of miss now that people don't send letters quite as much."

It's a great interview, and it sounds like a wonderful book!

Love Letter Contest

A fellow blogger and writer has alerted me to a letter contest I think you'll find interesting. The deadline is quickly approaching, though, so if you want to enter, you'll have to hurry!

The contest is related to the movie Bright Star about poet John Keats and his sweetheart, Fanny Brawne. The movie was released last month and was written and directed by Academy Award winner Jane Campion.

Keats, who died at the age of 25, was not only a poet but also a letter writer. Although he lived only a short while, Keats left behind many letters, according to a Web site featuring The Life and Works of John Keats, more than 240 of those letters survive today. Several of them are reproduced at the Web site.

There are two ways to enter...one by Twitter and the other with an old-fashioned love letter, but you must choose one or the other. The complete rules are on the Bright Star Web site. Look for the "Love Letter Contest" link on the main page. You'll also want to click on the "Contest Rules" for more details.

The letters will be judged on content, creativity/originality and presentation/artistic expression of idea. The selection of a winner is a three-part process. First, finalists will be chosen. Then, there will be a public vote, and, finally, celebrity judges will determine the winners and alternates.

Get out your pens, put on your romance hats and start writing! Good luck!

Why the interest in letter writing?

As I read articles that are of interest to me or this blog, I sometimes wonder, "Why am I so interested in letter writing?"

But, I don't really know the answer to that question. Part of it probably has to do with my interest in "old" things. I love to collect vintage or antique things. My kitchen is decorated with vintage kitchen utensils, cookie cutters, red-handled spoons and ladles and such. At Christmas, I decorate with vintage ornaments and Santas, some of which are old and some that just look old. I can't pass up a vintage or antique magazine or book. Somewhere in the back of my mind are thoughts that seem to range from "If I don't love this, who will?" to "Surely there's a use for this."

We often cook from scratch at our house, making our own bread (sure, we use a bread machine, but...still...), canning hot sauce, growing and drying herbs, etc. We even like to sew — by hand and by machine — but we don't always have enough time for that.

I don't just like the writing part of letter writing. I enjoy using a fountain pen, decorating the paper with rubber stamps, putting a wax seal on the back of the envelope, etc.

A fellow letter writer sent me a postcard, on which he wrote that he likes my blog but finds it ironic that I blog about old-fasioned paper and ink mail. I don't think it's so much ironic. Now, if I sent everyone e-mails saying they should write me letters...that would be ironic. I see this blog, and all the other letter writing blogs, as simply using one means of communication to discuss another form of communication.

I do see that e-mail, cell phones, texting, etc. may well be the death of letter writing, but I doubt blogging will affect correspondence much.

I wonder about the future of letter writing. I was a "Star Trek: Next Generation" fan...I can't remember Starship Enterprise inhabitants writing with pen and paper. Even as far back as the first "Star Wars" movie, I suppose the writers had written off hand-written communications.

So, why cling to it? I don't know. Doing away with pen and paper correspondence seems like we're losing a big part of our culture, our history.

It's something to ponder, anyway.

Stamp Collecting Month

According to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, October is National Stamp Collecting Month. The museum has a variety of activities and events planned for the month, including A Postal Party on the Hill for those who are in the Washington, D.C., area tomorrow, Oct. 16.

If you can't get to the museum, take a look at some of the online exhibits, including the Alphabetilately exhibit, which is on display for the next year at the museum, but is also viewable online. From "Advertising Covers" to "Zeppelin Post," the exhibit shares stamps from A to Z.

The museum Web site features all sorts of fun and interesting information about stamps. For example, the site has a little boxed  called "This Day in Postal History." For Oct. 15, it says,

"October 15, 1920
Inaugural airmail service begins between Seattle and Victoria, Canada. The service is operated by Hubbard Air Transport and was set up to expedite mail from the far east."

 Looks like they have a couple of items for today's date, so it may be a little different when you log on.

To tell you the truth, I hadn't given much thought to stamps in a long time, before I started this letter writing project. Well, I always liked to get holiday stamps for my Christmas cards, but otherwise, I didn't  pay much attention to the stamps. Then, I started finding pen pals who are interested in the stamps, so I started looking for interesting stamps.

I remember when we lived in Winnsboro, Louisiana, when I was a teenager and had several international pen pals...the post office clerk would ask if I wanted some "purty" (pretty) stamps. I always did.

Future of Letter Writing?

My "Reader's Digest" magazine came yesterday, and on page 25 was a list of "8 Thinks Being Killed by the Internet." The list was credited to Matthew Moore of the London Daily Telegraph.

I'm sure you're not surprised to know that "Letter writing" was on the list. I looked up Mr. Moore's article in the Daily Telegraph, and the original is quite a bit longer. "50 things that are being killed by the Internet" (FYI: I had to use Firefox to access the article; my other browsers wouldn't show the article) includes a variety of formerly common activities and items, such as "Listening to an album all the way through" and "Photo albums and slide shows."

Mr. Moore's full comment on letter writing says:

12) Letter writing/pen pals
Email is quicker, cheaper and more convenient; receiving a handwritten letter from a friend has become a rare, even nostalgic, pleasure. As a result, formal valedictions like "Yours faithfully" are being replaced by "Best" and "Thanks".

 The comments left by readers vary, with some being saddened by the loss of letter writing, and others happy to see it go. One commenter wrote: "an email is much less personal then a hand written letter dropped in the corner mailbox." And another posted this comment:

I wish people wrote more letters - I'm 24 and know that the small pile of letters I have received isn't likely to grow by much. And what are historical records going to consist of in the future?

 I wanted to leave a comment myself, but I couldn't get the system to work.

I don't know what the future of letter writing is. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, while we keep writing letters.

More Letter Writing Comments on the Internet

Last week, Candelaria Silva wrote "Letter Writing is not a dead art" at BlogHer.com. She wrote about writing love letters to her friends and about the many people writing about letter writing. It's a good column! Go take a look.

Letter writing humor

I found this book at a thrift store, it seems. When I bought it, I had never heard of it and didn't quite understand the type of book it was. It's titled "Letters of Thanks: A Christmas Tale," so I thought it was about writing thank-you letters.

How fun it was when I sat down and read it! Written by Manghanita Kempadoo and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury in 1969, the small book is a series of letters from Lady Katherine Huntington to Lord Gilbert, thanking him for all the gifts he keeps sending her... a partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three French hens, etc. I won't give away the story, but just imagine what you'd do with six geese, seven swans, nine fiddlers, ten drummers, eleven dancing ladies, and so on.

I see the book is available online at a variety of prices. If you love Christmas, as well as letter writing, you might find this book amusing.

A Different Kind of Letter

While doing some research on letter writing, I came across a Web site that has topics such as "The Art of Writing Letters" and "12 Rules for Writing GREAT Letters," both written by Pamela Wright.

The Web site is WrightsLaw, and it's an advocacy Web site for parents of children with disabilities. The letter writing articles all focus on writing letters of complaint or concern and attempting to remedy a bad situation.

Even if you don't have a child with disabilities or if you don't have a complaint, the letter writing tips are interesting to read. Many of the "12 Rules for Writing GREAT Letters" can be applied to most any letter writing situation. For example, the first rule is before you start writing, know why you are writing and what you hope to accomplish. This is a good rule to follow, whether or not you're seeking justice for disable child or you're simply writing a note to your best friend. Having an idea of what you want to write about makes your letter easier to read.

"The Art of Writing Letters" suggests using a story-telling approach to writing letters. Again, this works for complaint letters or personal missives.

I think it's an interesting site.

Not feeling like yourself?

In case you missed it, Saturday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. You know, "Arrrrrr!" and "Ahoy, matey!"

I must say, I forgot to "talk like a pirate" on Saturday, but it did get me to thinking...has anyone ever written a letter like a pirate? Assuming you're not really a pirate, that would take some imagination and a little bit of role-playing, I guess.

Sort of like "ghost-letter writing." I've never written a ghost letter, but I've read about them online. At first, I thought "ghost letters" were related to "ghostwriting," which involves a writer writing something for someone else who presents it as their own. I think a lot of celebrities hire ghostwriters to write their autobiographies for them.

But, that's not what ghost letters are all about. Ghost letters are letters people write as if they were written by a historical or fictional character. For example, what would Nancy Drew have written to the Hardy Boys? Or, maybe, what advice would George Washington have given Abraham Lincoln?

Have you ever written a ghost letter? Who did you pretend to be? Who did you send the letter to? Did they write back? As who? I'm curious. Tell me about it!

Quote of the day

This quote is attributed, on the Internet, to Sydney Smith, an English writer (1771-1845):

"Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up."

Of course, I wouldn't say correspondences are "impossible" to keep up, but it does take some work. In this project, I have found that it is easier to write a letter to a stranger, someone I've never written to before, such as the many letter writers on the the penpal sites, than it is to write to a friend or even an established penpal.

With my friends, I want to say something important, something meaningful, so I put off writing those letters until I have time to devote to the art of crafting a letter. With new penpals, or even just fellow snail mailers who may never become penpals, the letters are often simple letters of introduction, which are fairly easy to write.

However, I do believe, it is worth the effort to keep up the correspondences. Good friends are so important.

Fan letter?

After the news that one of my favorite actors, Patrick Swayze, has died from pancreatic cancer, I got to thinking about celebrities.

As far as I can remember, I've never written a fan letter. Now, I won't guarantee that statement. There's a chance I could've written a fan letter when I was a young girl, but I'm sure I've never written one as an adult.

Have you written a fan letter? Do you have any fan letter tips to share? Did you get a response?

I'd like to hear what you think!

The thing you leave undone

Don't forget to write a letter today.

The Sin Of Omission
by Margaret Sangster

It isn't the thing you do, dear;
It's the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.
The tender word forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts to-night.

The stone you might have lifted
Out of brother's way,
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone,
That you had no time nor thought for,
With troubles enough of your own.

The little acts of kindness,
So easily out of mind;
Those chances to be angels
Which every one may find
They come in night and silence
Each chill, reproachful wraith
When hope is faint and flagging
And a blight has dropped on faith.

For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all too great;
To suffer our great compassion
That tarries until too late;
And it's not the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you the bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster was an American author, poet and editor who lived from 1838 to 1912.