Who Would You Write To?

I used to send letters to my grandparents, my parents, my aunt and uncle, my sister, others. They sent letters, too. In the mail. Handwritten, folded, sealed, stamped, and put in the mailbox at the end of the driveway with the red flag up.

Mama Clain’s letters usually started out with “I hope this finds you…” with a lovely sentiment to follow—in the middle of a wonderful day or maybe having just had a delightful lunch. We were only thirty minutes away in most cases and saw each other regularly.

We would share the current weather, what we’d done that day, what we were doing over the weekend, when I was coming home for a visit. My elders shared who had passed, gotten married, started or folded a business, maybe a message from last weekend’s church service, how they were getting along, who was coming to visit, where they were going soon on a trip.

We were, indeed, pen pals.

I wish I’d been part of the Student Letter Exchange, started in the 1930s to connect people from all over the world to share their worlds, their cultures, their never-met-in-person friendships. It’s still going on today, I think, along with other pen pal organizations.

I met someone accidentally recently when I texted a family member. Turns out, the number no longer belongs to my cousin. The new owner of that number and I chatted on text. I told her who I am but didn’t ask for details about her, said how fun it would be to send letters now and then, sent her a postcard with light, personal details. I hope she will write back. She confirmed she had paper, envelopes, and stamps, quite an anomaly these days.

If you could step away from texting and messaging and emailing, if you could sit down and focus on writing an actual, old-fashioned letter—by hand on stationary or plain paper or in a beautiful blank card with lots of writing space, or on the computer—to put in an envelope, address, stamp, seal and mail, who would you write to?

How long would it take? Maybe 20 minutes a month, literally the same amount of time as watching two movies a year.

How you would start? What would you share? What would you ask them to share? How would you end?

Getting a letter or a card in the mail from someone sharing their life with you and asking about yours is one of the most satisfying arts of all time—the lost art of letter writing, or card writing, whichever brings joy to you and your recipient!

This art is primary in my epistolary novella Three Guesses. Sam sneaks a personal letter into Richard and Pete’s formal letters from a school fundraiser auction to see if they know each other, if they were aware of the tumbleweed of events that caused Richard to win the over-priced bid on Pete’s painting, Three Guesses. Seven years in, they still avoid digital communication, even though it’s taking over all forms of communication at the time—late 1990s to early 2000s—until they decide to meet in person, coming from their different corners of the country.

Who would you write to? It can be this simple…

Dear Friend,

I hope this finds you in the middle of a lovely afternoon. I took a walk in my neighborhood early this morning. It’s been a beautiful day with everything so green. I mailed twenty of my Three Guesses postcards to Ireland and have fifteen more to go. I wish I knew my McClain heritage. How fun it would be to travel there and meet relatives!

My family has had so many wonderful times together lately, from Thanksgiving through Mother’s Day, and more to come. We miss Dad beyond words but always feel him with us in spirit.

How are you all these days? I hope enjoying time with friends and family. These are truly the most important things.

Did you know that every June 1st is National Pen Pal Day? Did you know Catherine the Great and Voltaire wrote to each other for over fifteen years and never met in person? J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis exchanged letters for years. P.G. Wodehouse, one of my favs, corresponded with Agatha Christie, another fav. Henry James and Edith Wharton. Grouch Marx and T.S. Eliot. The longest pen pal correspondence recorded is 83 years 172 days between Ruth Magee in Canada and Beryl Richmond in the UK, who started writing each other as children in 1939 through a school pen pal program.

I’m reading Words in Air, the complete correspondence between poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, who wrote to each other for 30 years. Their discussions and disagreements are so entertaining. It’s over 800 pages!

What are you reading these days? Maybe we can start a virtual book club!

My love to you and all!
Chris