Hibernation and the lost art of letter writing
|
Dear Reader, This month has felt like the winterest of all winters. I don’t know about you, but the pull to hibernation has been strong for me this year. A friend sent me this Instagram post at the beginning of the month and it has really stuck with me. Here’s the punchline: If January feels heavy, slow, or resistant – nothing is wrong with you. You are listening to the Earth. Leaning into that idea, I’ve been trying not to be too hard on myself. I set small, achievable goals for the week. I’ve been reading a lot. (I know – shocking.) And I’m making sure that I stop to think about what I’m reading, not just plowing through stories. And when you stop to pause, you start to notice themes. Not just in the stories we read, but in other interactions as well. January’s theme: the lost art of letter writing.Not emails. Not texts. But real physical letters, written by hand. Remember those? Three completely different and unrelated stories led me to consider this theme. Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, and Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I stumbled across Evidence of the Affair because I was in search of a short audiobook to fill the remainder of my drive home from Ohio. It’s an 88-page novella, and the entire book consists of letters between two people whose spouses are engaged in an affair. This writing style was a really powerful delivery method for this story. And it was (to the best of my recollection) my first epistolary novel. Next I read Theo of Golden. I won’t share too much about this book because it is a work of art that I think everyone should read. But in it, Theo writes handwritten letters to strangers. The letters are only a part of the beauty of this book, but here’s what I noticed. In a world in which it would be easier to Copy-Paste the same email invitation to a large number of people, Theo cares enough to really write to each person. The Correspondent is getting a lot of buzz, so you may have heard of it. And let me just say that if I hadn’t already started to internalize the theme yet, The Correspondent arrived to hit me over the head with it. Another epistolary novel, this beautiful story centers on a complicated septogenarian who treats her letter writing practice like a religion, and is coming to terms with her rapidly deteriorating vision. As I started to toss this theme over in my head, I noticed it in other places. I recalled that around New Years I had received a handwritten letter from my 87 year old uncle in response to receiving my Christmas card, and how touched I was to get it. A client included “handwritten letters” on her vision board for the year, and two clients shared stories related to letter writing. And then I recalled that my sister in law – often referred to as “The Queen of Gift-Giving” – had given me beautiful stationary and a pen for Christmas. Sounds like the universe is trying to tell me something – time to get back to the lost art of letter writing. What was the last piece of mail you received that wasn’t a bill? When did you last write something with your hands – not your keyboard? Who in your life could you surprise with a hand-written note, sent via good old-fashioned snail mail? A letter written by hand is a special kind of recognition – a message that you matter. If we all send a letter to one person this month, that will be a lot of people who feel seen. And the world needs a little more of that right now.
I sent Theo of Golden to my son at college and included a handwritten letter with it, sharing a little about what I loved about the book and what I thought he would like. He thanked me for the book – and the letter. Wishing you a peaceful and purpose-filled week, Beth
|