The Fine Art of Family Magazine

Just the other day, someone told me he was going to mail his resume to a potential employer. With so many people looking for work and flooding company inboxes, I thought, “Wow, how is this guy ever going to get the job?!” Still I had to admire his effort to find the right piece of paper, print out his work, place it in a stamped envelope, handwrite the address, and mail it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it got someone’s attention, as it did mine.

This got me thinking, do people still snail mail handwritten notes anymore? When’s the last time you sent a thank you, get well soon, congrats, happy birthday, thinking of you, or a love note and mailed via the good ol’ U.S. Postal Service?

Aside from holiday greeting cards and wedding invites, the regular mail sometimes feels like it consists of solely catalogs, magazines and local coupons, especially since the stuff we used to get (bills, bank statements, personal letters) are all now so easily done online. No wonder mailboxes are disappearing. Some 200,000 blue boxes have been removed across the country in the last two decades.

All the more reason why taking the time to deliver a message the way we have for centuries can be so powerful, especially when you put a pen to paper. Because it happens so infrequently these days, when I receive one of these rare sentimental notes from a friend or family member, I usually find it touching and am sometimes compelled to save it. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Whenever my parents traveled without me and my sister, my mother would send us a postcard (here, I scanned one to share with you). I kept them all, as I later did with every single letter my two girls wrote me from summer camp.

Over time, all these postcards and notes have become a great keepsake that allow me to fondly reminisce the past. I’m also looking forward to sharing them with my kids’ kids one day. Speaking of which, it worries me to think about how my future grandkids will record their own written history. Emails and text messages containing revealing secrets, pivotal moments, or wonderful dreams will vanish in an instant (unless you print and save them somehow, but how often does that happen?). What traces of their past relationships with family, friends, and lovers will remain? Believe me, these things are worth keeping.

I wonder if that’s how Russ Hardin’s inner circle feels about his unique postcard project. In this week’s Piece by Piece, he talks about how he shares his family postcard collection (accumulated over generations) with people he loves (he mails them!) and they adore him for it. I hope his story (and mine) will inspire you to pick up a pen and write someone you love a note–and mail it. They’ll appreciate it and maybe even hold on to it forever.

xox,
M

P.S. We’re hosting a fun party in New York City tomorrow with our special guests actor/director Tony Goldwyn and designer Josie Natori. We’ve invited some of the web’s top bloggers and plan to play off this idea of postcards as keepsakes. It should be a fun surprise! Check back later this week to read (and see) what we came up with.

Published on November 30, 2009

Tags: Capturing, Family, Heirloom, Monicas Blog