It’s Universal Letter Writing Week!

Do you remember receiving an awesome letter IN THE MAIL? I’m not talking about your e-mail. I mean the type of mail brought to your mailbox or post office box by a professional letter carrier (not a pigeon or owl…).

This week is Universal Letter Writing Week – now is your time to shine. It’s time for YOU to be the person who sends that awesome letter. Don’t wait for one to come to you! Be the change!

All kidding aside, I wanted to tell you about an awesome letter I sent once. Growing up, I loved all things paranormal. Okay, I still do. But back then, I was reading and watching everything I could when it came to the paranormal. I think I had checked out every book at the public library that mentioned Ed and Lorraine Warren, maybe twice. Locally, we even had our very own author who would write stories about paranormal happenings here in Delaware. Every once and a while, my parents would surprise me with a new book written by him: Ed Okonowicz. I even heard him speak at one point, perhaps at a scouting event. Well, I took it upon myself to write him a letter and tell him how much I appreciated his work. I made sure to include all of the important bits of a letter: Name, date, addresses, phone number, obviously not in that order… I wrapped it up with a nice ending, I mean this was a professional writer after all. Surely he would spot errors right away! Well, it worked.

He called me.

PANIC!

Of course, panicking wasn’t necessary but that’s most certainly what happened in my teenage brain. He told me how he loved my letter because of the thought and care I put into writing it for him. The truth is, even (I’ll tell my age a bit here) 20 years ago, letter writing was a dying art. Now it’s been another two decades and it’s still declining. I promise you – ask any professional at the post office near you. Although, our post office did see an increase with the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as the TikTokers say: I digress.

The point to all this is: Write a letter. Truthfully, it’s 2021! It doesn’t have to be written with a pen on paper. You could write a letter on the computer and send it via social media or email and that would work just fine. But write one. Send someone a letter that says hello, your haircut looks nice or I’m glad you’re teaching my kids this year. I promise you it will make them smile and we all need a bit more of that.

If you’re politically inclined given the recent state of affairs, send your legislator a (nice) email. You could tell them how the incident this past week made you feel or that you hope they are doing okay after everything went south. You could even tell someone thank you or review that business you frequent! The possibilities are endless! (Unless you don’t start at all!)

How do you plan to celebrate Universal Letter Writing Week?