Letters and the Joy They Can Bring Anytime

I often find some very interesting stories in the Parade Magazine section of the weekend paper. I came across one recently that I had saved to read for later. The cover had Al Pacino on the front and his new movie coming out called Danny Collins. It is based on a true story about a letter John Lennon wrote to a British folk singer back in 1971. The folk singer never got the letter until 2005 from a collector that had found it.  I am not really a Al Pacino fan but this looks like a movie maybe worth seeing.

What caught my eye was after reading the article that maybe the lost art of letter writing might be making a comeback. (Not sure if maybe it ever really left, at least not for me).

When you stop and think, there are many types of letter you can write. When I think back to all the letters I have written over the year's, several important ones come to mind.

When I went through my quest to find my adopted family, I wrote MANY letters. The final one was to my birth mother. I still have a copy today that I occasional reflect over.

 As a student in school I remember having writing assignments where you had to write to a business asking for information. I remember at the end of junior high probably in a social studies class we had to locate a person (pen pal) to write to from another country. The teacher had located somewhere the class could write too. The teacher sent the letters and you waited to hear back.  We eventually heard back from a class in Korea. The girl that was assigned to me wrote back a few letters but eventually after a short time I didn't hear from her. I was very disappointed but she had somehow sent my name to a girl in Sweden. I remember in the last letter she sent to me she stated she didn't have time to write so she was sending my name to this other girl because she wanted me to have someone to write too.  I eventually wrote the girl a few times and she wrote that she had too many people to write too also (guess by today's standards its like having too many Facebook friends) so she was passing my name to a relative.

The true pen pal letter writing campaign started in 1976 and lasted until 1981. Lisette was the same age as I was but lived a very exciting life. She was going to university (equivalent to our high school at the time) and was working as an au pair. She would send me postcards of all her travels in Europe with the different families she was employed with. She wrote frequently about drinking and other things at the time I had no clue about. I remember my mother thought she was just too advanced but it was so fun reading about her adventures. I kept the letters and occasionally think back how innocent I was and how much of a jet setter she was.

I now wonder what that 54 year old woman is up too. Is she living in Europe? She had always talked about visiting me and I her which never happened. Is she married with children? She talked about wanting to work for the airlines also at one time. I am sure our lives are completely different but I would love to find her now and catch up.

One of the letter writing stories mentioned in the article was a website started by a girl in Atlanta. MoreLoveLetters.com was started by Hannah Brencher in hopes of inspiring more letter writing. She has also wrote a memoir If You Find This Letter: My Journey to Find Purpose Through Hundreds of Letters to Strangers. 

One of the sad statistics listed in the article was since 2007 the U.S. Post Office receives 20% less letters.  One  positive statistic is 1 million+ kids in America alone sent letters to Santa Claus last year (he would still rather get a letter than an e-mail or text in my opinion).  I know I still enjoy sending a letter to a few people during Christmas and I really enjoy getting a response from them.

  It also reminds me of a song I heard as a kid called "I'm Going to Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" from the musical Ain't Misbehaven'. I might just write a letter to a friend I haven't heard from in a very long time. You can too!