LetterMo

I started with GUSTO. But then, halfway into the month, I haven’t received a single letter. Well, I did get an email from the soldier I adopted, (I’ll explain in another post) and it’s to be expected, hell he’s in Afghanistan, he’s got better things to do than sit down and write a letter in longhand. And though I didn't post my mail address on there, I did post asking for people to send me a note on the side. And I've gotten two or three responses from that. But it seems as though the LetterMo forum has become yet another popularity contest; a sort of free-for-all swap meet when it comes to letters. Now, I know we all have our hobbies, writing, reading, watching movies, knitting, whatever. And when we find a group of like minded people our first (and probably most natural) inclination is to jump in and try to meet as many people as possible. Again, nothing wrong with it.

It’s just not for me.

I want pen-pals so I can form a connection. A deep connection that isn’t translatable to a post card or an art piece. Granted, they are always fun to receive. But I’m not going to send them, so it’s kind of one sided for people. And I don’t want to disappoint anyone. So, I don’t respond to the massive amounts of:

“Write me!”

“I’ll send you a post card to complete your collection.”

"Navigating these boards is too boring, I just want a massive list of addresses, so I can essentially send out a form letter, just in an artsy package."

I want to find a few people that I can have an amazing correspondence with; sort of a Best-Friend-in-the-Mailbox kind of thing. Instead I’m being shunted to the side because I’m not marching along to the same cadence as everyone else.

I’m sure I’ll find someone there that is interested in the same thing; a nice, thought out letter, specific to the person and their interests, a person more interested in the substance of the letter, rather than the number of items in the mailbox.

I've found a few prospects, we'll see if things progress.