Much more than mere mail

                   National Letter Writing Week: January 9 - 16, 2011

And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
~W.H. Auden

The never-ending emails, spam, forwarded hoaxes and bad jokes, advertising, ecards, texts, tweets, status updates from "friends": nowadays, we are surrounded by the written word. A commodity that has lost its value in abundance, these mostly meaningless messages that we allow to accompany us everywhere are oh-so-easily deleted, trashed, forgotten or ignored.

But a letter written by hand, created just for you, is something else. Notice how you open it with care, read every word, stash it safely away with other letters and pictures and important documents in your treasure box.

If you had to get out of the house in a rush, that box would be the first thing that you would grab on your way out the door.

Why don't you take just a little bit of time this week to give someone else this special gift? Your slow-cooked letter could be the comfort correspondence that person needs.

Okay, you want to do it, but don't know where to start? Here are a few ideas:

1) Write and send a letter to a young person. Kids as young as three get excited about receiving mail. Enclose blank stationary and a SASE to encourage a response. Commemorative stamps or the child's picture on the stamps will really capture his or her attention.

2) On the other end of the spectrum, write to an elderly person. Many older people feel isolated and alone. Your letter doesn't necessarily have to be written to someone that you know: you can contact a local nursing facility or government agency for the aging.

3) Write your sweetheart an old-fashioned love letter. You can look at this as an opportunity to warm things up for Valentine’s Day, which is just around the corner.

4) Write to the boss of someone in the service industry with whom you regularly interact. Has a grocery clerk or waitress or childcare assistant gone out of their way to make your life easier? Return the favor by making them feel recognized and appreciated.

5) Write to somebody in your life who may not have heard from you in a while who has ended up being important to you: a former teacher, a mentor, a friend, etc.  Tell them why you're writing. Send a recent picture (you have permission to use the internet to find their current addresses).

6) Write to The President.  President Obama responds himself to a portion of the letters that he receives.  His mailing address is The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500.

7) Write to a deployed soldier. If you don't know any soldiers or don't know what to write about, click here.

8) If you'll been disappointed in a purchased product lately, sit down and write a letter to the company.  Letters received via the mail are often taken much more seriously by businesses than email, and you might be pleasantly suprised by their response.

9) Write a letter to your future self. This can be for you 10, 20, 30, even 50 years in the future. Tell yourself what your goals, dreams, and wishes. Send it to yourself in the mail, and don't open it until you have become the recipient.

Hopefully, that got the creative juices in your ink pen flowing. Now stop reading and get writing (and boost revenue, too)!