Handwritten letters can change digital lives
A father-daughter ritual in celebrating slow correspondence; 6 tips to enrich your letter-writing
It took only 11 steps to reach the 1880s.
One July, I entered my grandmother’s attic.
I discovered a crate of forgotten correspondence. Unfolding pages, I entered another era’s reading room.
My great-grandfather’s kinfolk exchanged 100s of letters.
I sorted them into sequence.
Beginning in 1884 and reaching into the depths of the 1930s, they traced civic turmoil, WWI, pandemic, and The Great Depression.
Hallmark card wisdom tells us that history doesn’t repeat itself. It rhymes.
The rhythms of those pages proved instructive in my youth.
Today, I’m re-reading them with a new lens as a husband, father, and business owner.
Yet, I’m no longer alone in that reading room.
Each night or so, my daughter and I open a letter or two from “our people.”
Lilly Grace is removed by 5 generations from those signatures. But still, we chuckle at the quirks, sayings, and foibles of Victorians we’ve come to know by nicknames.
We also celebrate their birthdays, courtships, travels, and joys in that timeless reading room.
Even better, we’ve even begun exchanging letters ourselves!
Now I ask: What steps are you taking to fill an attic crate? In 100 years, will your grandchild discover their own reading room?
Hand letters are gifts. They bless today, yet can give again across generations.
TAKE ACTION: Here are 6 ways to enrich your letter-writing!
(1) MAKE A SUNDAY HABIT. The Victorian era habit was to read and respond to correspondence from kith and kin on Sundays. What a great afternoon family practice to adopt in these days of impulsivity and digital impermanence.
(2) EMPLOY DATE & DETAIL Think of future generations reading your epistle. Date them and add additional notations that reflect the location and context in which the letter was written. (e.g., January 11, 2020. Sunday afternoon. Lexington, MA. Covid-19 Self-Isolation.)
(3) USE FULL NAMES. First names only have a context today. But if the letter is read in 100 years, it will be helpful to know your full name, that of the recipient, and those you reference.
(4) FIND A SPECIAL PEN. Ink on paper offers both writer and reader a tactile, “this matters” permanence. And using a special “for my letters only” pen adds yet another layer of ritual meaning.
(5) USE CURSIVE. Block print script counts. But extra-credit is found in the personality of cursive. This is fast becoming a lost art among a generation raised on keyboards and without cursive handwriting instruction in school. Change that in your family!
(6) SHARE DEEPER. Beyond the mundane of today, even just a line or paragraph from your heart, head, or relationships can add an entirely different layer of value to your letter.
THINKER THURSDAYS™
Read. Connect. Reflect.
A weekly practice each Thursday for reading, connecting, and reflecting.
Consider joining the weekly zine: THINKER THURSDAYS. Short. Sweet. It includes 3 topical articles, 2 TED talks, and 1 reflection piece like the above. Let’s call it food for thought. Join here.
