February is the Month of Letters!

Every year, there is a festival of postal mail called the Month of Letters. Like NaNoWriMo, whose objective is to write 50,000 words of a novel draft during the month of November, Lettermo is designed around a simple and lovely concept: write and mail an item every day during the month of February. “Write” is relative: I have a penpal who sends elaborate postcards with tinily typed messages that go on for a long ways but that are small enough to be cleverly attached to the back of the card.

To whom do you write?

I have many penpals all over the globe. What’s fun about this hobby is that it’s a tangible reminder that there are real people in the world, and people are basically decent and curious about others. I’ve gotten a postcard made with fabric, where the sender used their sewing machine to attach a piece of fabric to a card. I framed that one. Another pal crocheted a heart and attached it to her postcard – and it came to my post office all the way from Poland! I can only imagine the looks on the letter carriers’ faces.

What do you write?

Personally, I love the Postman’s Knock’s “The Letter Writer’s Complete Resource: A Guide for Writing Letters,” by creator Lindsey Bugbee. She has a terrific template that one can print out and use to draft a letter, so that you know what to say besides, “Hello, how are you?”

Some artists create “mail art,” which is a concept all on its own. If you’re curious what that’s all about, just google mail art – but beware, you may fall down a very deep rabbit hole. You have been warned.

When do you write letters?

Like you, I’m busy with a thousand things during the day. But here’s the thing: I’m sure you’ve heard about “mindfulness,” the idea that we should slow down and pay attention to the moment. There’s a growing emphasis on “slow” living: slow food, slow craft, slowing down… Writing a physical letter, as opposed to dashing off an email or worse, a text, allows us to slow down and concentrate: to whom am I writing? What are they interested in? What do I want to know about them? Where are they from? Paper letters don’t ding, or chirp, or flicker, or do any of a hundred other irritating electronic whizbangs: they’re exactly what they are – a physical object, created just for us by another human being somewhere in the world.

Where do you write?

I write wherever I am – that answer sounds flip, but I really mean it. Pre-pandemic, I’d write in cafes and bus stops, or on the train commuting to work. I’d incorporate drink coasters and napkins and other ephemera that I’d find while I was out and about. Now that the pandemic is our perpetual reality and going out and about is no longer safe, what with people who refuse to wear masks or practice safe socializing, I am using up all the paper supplies I’ve hoarded over the years of being a panpal afficionado. I’m finally using up an airmail pad that I bought, I kid you not, in San Mateo, California.

We moved away from San Mateo when I was ten.

Needless to say I’m nowhere near ten years old anymore. It’s high time I used the silly pad for something other than to store in my drawer, eh?

Why do you write?

This is more esoteric. Why write to strangers I’ve met on the internet or in penpal exchanges? That’s just it, though: they don’t stay strangers. Does every person write back? Do they write back with the same depth and interest that I do? No, but that’s okay. Enough do that I have a lively correspondence, and I no longer dread going to my mailbox. I call it “non-bill mail,” and I really mean that. I am excited now when I see our letter carrier come by, and I even know her name, (it’s Lauren, and she’s very nice).

I write because it connects me to other people and makes the world a less scary place. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that other people are very different and we’ll never tackle big problems like poverty or the climate disaster. But letter by letter, word by word, we create a different world, hand to hand and heart to heart.

How do I get started?

Click on over to the lettermo site and sign up. It’s free. Then, when February starts, write a letter and mail it each day during the month. Write back to everyone who writes to you.

One suggestion is, get yourself a post office box. I prefer to do that so that my physical home address isn’t out on the internet. Not everyone does that, and there’s certainly no requirement of it. I just find it more comfortable to do it that way.

That’s all there is to it: you write a letter and mail it every day during February. You don’t even need to sign up on lettermo! You can write your family, friends – heck, even write to your high school or college reunion list. Write to your politicians. Write to your local newspaper. Write to your favorite magazine. It doesn’t matter what it is, just write it and mail it.

That’s all there is to it!