The Month of Letters

Readers, you probably know all too well by now our penchant for letters at the Dean house - we try and write a couple each weekend. I have started replying to personal emails (if I have not replied during the week) with a letter so that I spend a bit less time in front of a screen. Jen and I usually write at least one postcard or letter to a friend or family member. However, I feel as though I might "step up my game" in the letter writing department and a challenge posted recently online prompted me to commit to writing 24 letters in the month of February. If you'd like to participate with me, send me your address (email, twitter, facebook, etc) and I'll put you in line for a letter! It might be on fun paper, might be long or short, but either way I will hand-write a letter to you. Also, we have fun stamps to put on the envelopes as well!

The Power of Mail

The holiday season (which is just about over as of this writing) is quite the time for mail. Holiday cards and letters, thank-you notes, and packages filled with presents. It’s amusing, then, that it appears that the postal service is ending next-day delivery and shuttering many of its locations across the US. Of course, as pointed out recently in The New Yorker, the rise of email and other forms of electronic communication are largely to blame.

Still, receiving a piece of mail is far more exciting than an email or an “@” mention in a tweet. Our many holiday cards on our mantle reminded me of this, and set me to thinking about why “analog” mail is such a joy to receive.