Today, You Should Write a Letter

This simple act of kindness for kindness’ sake can make a big impact

On May 1, 2014 — which is now fully SEVEN YEARS PLUS in the past — I promised on my blog that, “One of these days I will write a thing about writing letters.” I wrote this because I had spent the whole day writing letters that day, and I didn’t want to have to blog on top of that, but I had assured my three readers that I would blog every single day back then.

Well, Past Sophie, I’m here to make good on your promise. I still write letters in much the same way, although there are different people I write them to, and my return address has changed.

My love of letters began when I was seven, and I learned that they were A Thing. I started writing letters to my best friend, who lived like four miles away, and whom I saw multiple times per week already. But the thing was, LETTERS WERE BETTER THAN IN PERSON. Even in 1993, I understood that if people weren’t taking full advantage of the US Postal Service every damn day, what were they even doing with their lives?

Seriously, take a moment to think about how purely magical the concept of a letter is. You choose a place to live. That place receives a unique number and a name. (This is called a “street address.”) This number and name nests inside another place…