I love square envelopes! Reviving the lost art of postal mail
These days I’m a city girl, with a small mailbox in a row of mailboxes into which bills slide, but packages can never be embellished. Every once in a while, instead of those efficiently-sized business envelopes, my heart leaps at the sight (even if it’s crammed in there!) something else: big, mysteriously bulging manila envelopes; colored square envelopes; postcards All of these addressed in real human writing.
As a child, a favorite book to check out from the library was full of ideas for unusual things one could send in the mail. I immediately became addicted and started cultivating pen pals, even if they were as far away as across town. I also kept it through college. I once, memorably, sent a friend home a plastic shark that we used to garnish certain ridiculous drinks at the restaurant where I worked. On another occasion, I opened one of the most beautiful silver square envelopes I had ever seen in an exciting new correspondence to unfold a giant sheet of vellum covered in her beautiful little cursive handwriting. The wind caught it like a sail.
Sure, I send emails, text messages, Facebook and Twitter. And in fact, I’m posting this on the Internet, not licking square envelopes and sending them to your homes. But that’s our world. It doesn’t have to mean the end of one of my favorite hobbies that creates my favorite artifacts. Long live letter writing! Long live the postal mail!
Do you want to follow my example? Here are some tips:
1. Get in touch. Take a quote to your local stationery. Start with what feels good in your own hands and pleases your own eyes. Heavy paper, the lightest vellum, handmade rice paper with patterned flowers… Run your fingers over loose sheets. Try the pens on the provided sketch pads. Splurge on gold seals or whimsical stickers, if that’s your thing. The sensory experience of writing letters is just as delightful as the sensory experience of receiving letters. Find out what you like and take a pair of sheets home.
2. Accept your handwriting. With all the work we do on computers, some of us hardly lift a pen except to sign credit card receipts. But you learned to type and write (remember the difference?) in elementary school, and like riding a bike, you still know how to do it. Try to be legible, but stick to the unique shape of your natural handwriting. It says a lot about you, as you’ve heard, but mostly that you’re alive and you care. A page covered with your unique script is a treasure for the recipient.
3. Know your audience. Sit down and write a letter to the person you would most like to receive a letter from. Take as much time as you would like that person to take while writing. Include details that they would love, the kind of details that you hope they include in your response. If you want, you can include a SASE (stamped self-addressed envelope) with your letter, but even better is to choose your pen pal wisely, finding someone who will surprise you with witty and charming letters created especially for you.