no post, no post

Oh, the month of July was not a big month for blog posts, or for writing letters. Back on track with our letter Sundays for August!

prize ideas!

I love prizes. I just realized how slick it is to give away prizes in the form of handwritten letters. Snail mail. Yeah! Fill up the mailboxes with not just the bills!

So on your facebook status, on your twitter account, or in your blog, set forth a challenge to your readers and give away a prize, if you want, of a unique handwritten letter, complete with your signature for the sake of prosperity or otherwise.

For example, see here. Is that awesome, or what?

Dear Dragon, a visual

dear dragon powerpoint

View more presentations from troydanielbecker.

You will probably need to view full screen in order to read it. And also because I couldn't figure out how to add hoverover text descriptions. So you will need this information when the time is right:

Slide #12:

The Duchess invited you to a very grand ball masque* where you drank too much pink lemonade and in a fashion not at all becoming to a gentleman. You tripped the Duchess, pulled the Princess's hair, and knocked down the cake. As a matter of fact, you really rather put your foot in it.

Whereupon you pick up your pen, and this is what you write:

*ball masque - a masquerade ball

birthdays, and changing font face

Bonnie has been so impressive lately with her blog we talk dinosaur. It is rather inspirational! Meanwhile, we've been writing loved ones. And it's this time of year we get extra mail in the mailbox because it's something like "birthday season" at the Becker house.

Isaac is about to turn the big 3, followed by Orry turning the big 5. They like opening their birthday mail, and I suppose it's a good a time as any to mention birthday greetings.

What I find awkward is messaging somebody on facebook when the last correspondence we shared was my birthday greeting from the year prior! Well, there's nothing like a note in the mail to solve that problem. And sometimes you don't really feel like a birthday card is in order, but how easy it is to write into a quick update later "I hope you have/had a happy birthday this year!"

To wit:

Dear Ben, <--I am using my cousin here because I'm thinking about him.

We've been settling into our new Texas life here over the past year. I am teaching English as a second language at a new college. The job is much better than the pay.

Our brood kind of reminds me of your family when you were young. But in Houston, Texas instead of Buhl, Idaho.

I hope you had a great birthday recently. I wonder about your life in New York. I hope all is well.

Take care!

Whew, it took a while for me to figure out how to change font face! I hope it was worth it.

It's not that April didn't happen

Dear reader,

It's not that April didn't happen, but we let our blogging slide last month. About writing letters, we didn't do horribly. But we have gotten pretty bad about writing letters and getting them ready, but not sending them right away, or even not sending them at all. Part of the reason is that we like to include photos, but we don't always have spare photos to send. But excuses are for bad students. Let us instead rise to the challenge of getting our needed photos each week or two or three, and sending out our letters each Monday as is in the plans.

Sincerely,
the Beckers

memories in letters

Keeping you up-to-date on our mailing regimen, I would have to say we're doing okay with our letter writing and mailing. It's not as routine yet as we would like, but we are definitely keeping to the spirit of the resolution.

One great thing to share in a letter is an old memory or story from years gone by. Write a letter today!

NPR's Saul Bellow's Guide to Good Old Fashioned Letters

Of course, this can't go without reposting:

NPR's Well-Written 'Letters': Saul Bellow Shows Us How, by REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN

Treasures in the Mail

This is my first blog post on this site that I am sharing with my hubby. You see, it was my bright-idea to take on this challenge (aren't all bright-ideas mine, though?) and Troy did the hard task of getting it in blog form. So far, I've been having a good time encouraging my kids to make things to send, taking photos of said kids in various setting and poses to send, and receiving small treasures back in the mail!

Recently, I received a beautiful pair of earrings in the mail. It was for my birthday and it made me feel very special. Now, there are certain things that I worry about sending in the mail. Money is one of them, gift cards another, and small precious treasures certainly make the list. How easy it would be to lose such a thing in the mail! What with all the sorters and bins and fingers that help our mail get to where it's going. But, nevertheless, we send these tokens of love anyway. I also received some silly bandz in the mail for the kids (I suppose). And I got to thinking. What are some other things that we can send along with our letters? What's the strangest thing that we've received with our letters? How can we ensure that our treasures make it to their destinations?

getting personal mail

It's just so dandy, getting personal mail. Today we got a little postcard from some loved ones. What an upper.

How are we keeping to our weekly goal of letter writing? Well, I need to get in gear, because many of our February letters are going to old friends of mine--so I need to get those letters out there!

How do you use a letter to reconnect? Well, I'll think about it while I write these letters, and I'll let you know what I find. Got thoughts? Let me know....

real life letters

Dear reader,

When I was a young man child, I started writing to church camp friends. Lo and behold, they started writing back. And I realized that a great benefit in writing and sending mail is receiving mail in turn. 20 years later, according to our new year resolutions, we are sending out more letters now, and wouldn't you know it, we're tickled to receive good old fashioned letters in our mailbox, and not just the bills.

Do we require or expect return letters when we send out mail? I do not. I think of letters as little mail treats that for now four dimes and four pennies I can get delivered anywhere in the country (and for a little more delivered anywhere in the world). I like to send them off with "no strings attached". But of course there is a string attached... a little string of love, and I like to imagine these little silky things criss-crossed around the world, weaving together a sort of fabric of human networking and interaction. I like to send them off without the need of anything in return. Now, there is a lost cultural expectation, in American culture at least, which has to do with the requirement of corresponding in turn and also with formalities such as thank yous and so on. There is some good value in this, but I'm not sure how I want to participate in reviving this custom. Especially in the matters of correspondence, which, as I stated, I like to think of as free gifts. Perhaps it is my conservative side and perhaps not, but I think correspondence customs work well in a free market, where letter exchangers are more likely to write more letters and get more letters. If one wants to get more, then one writes more. If one wants to get less, one writes less. On the other hand, I believe in a more literate and giving culture, and I do participate in this blog to inspire us all to write, so maybe I'm less "free market" than I realize....

I do like ellipses.

To close, I want to open a tag/label for envelope art. I like all forms from the simple smiley or quick exterior note, to the ornate and complex. My brother's lone star is somewhere in the middle:

Letters of Note

This is what I'm talking about: Letters of Note

I link to sites like this on the side...

Ultimately, I'd like to collect gems from you readers and host something like this for the personal everyday common wo/man.

marriage arrangement letters, by troy

I recently found this great old photo of my great-grandparents with my grampa and great-uncle. The picture touched the core of me because of the buildings around which I grew up--I can understand the very spot where the photo is taken. Also I am not familiar with photos of my great grandfather but he sure looks like my uncles. My great-grandmother I knew but as a blind nonagenarian and not as a young mom. I always see me in my grandpa even though he looks a little more like some of my cousins.

The barn in the background is going to be featured in the Becker Park going up in that area.

But is a picture really worth a thousand words?

This couple, "Will" and Minnie, met over correspondence. In the early twentieth century, Will went west to gain his fortune. Jerome, Idaho was founded in 1907 and it was around this time he was working in quarters where Minnie's sister was a cook. Maybe she hooked up a bunch of guys with a number of sisters--I don't know. But the story goes that after some mail between Idaho and Iowa, a marriage was assembled. The marriage was made. They begat him. He begat him. And he begat me.

Hmm... to see some of those letters. I owe my existence to such!

Dear Dragon...

Before there were the dear dragon kid's books of today, there was

Dear Dragon: And Other Useful Letter Forms for Young Ladies and Gentlemen Engaged in Everyday Correspondence

by Sesyle Joslin, illustrated Irene Haas

This little gem of a book from 1962 is an inspiration to letter writers. A "beguiling and practical series of letters showing [children] what to write for all kinds of occasions." Do any of you remember this, or "What Do You Say, Dear?" or others of that ilk?

Any other letter writing inspirations in print you'd like to share?

diversion: cursive writing

You gotta love the Internet. Take this for example. A guide to cursive writing. I know probably all of you have developed your writing style. But if you're into writing with flourishes or wanto brush up on cursive writing, check out these pages on the construction of cursive letters.

yeah, there's

but also

You could say I have a style, personally. It's heavy on the utility of being writable and readable. However, it also is fairly fluid, and when I write letters, hmmm, maybe I'll try some flourishes.

Write on.

the spreadsheet

So, it is easier to plan than to do. But if you plan things really well, it can really facilitate the doing. So we opened up a spreadsheet and made a list of people for the rows and months for the columns. Then we went down the list and made a sort of schedule for when we would write so and so. Now, each week we can refer to our spreadsheet and just write to those people.

Also to facilitate our writing we bought some envelopes and stamps. We really never have a shortage of paper around. If you get a piece of "scratch paper", which is just printed sheets of paper that aren't of any use but have a nice blank backside, and it has a letter on the back--that's our way of saying we love you, and here we are showing it in part by reusing paper that would otherwise be trash. Unfortunately are stamps aren't here yet (we bought them online), so some of you may have already received envelopes with a nice official postmark on them.

The kids like drawing pictures or coloring, so that part is easy.

So we just need to write letters, stuff the goods in the envelopes, address the envelopes, and send them off!

the program

Here it is. We talked about it, and now we're setting it up. Our program? To write! We've loved writing letters and getting letters in our lifetime. So now we're making it a priority. Every week we want to write letters as a family, and make sure we sending something to our loved ones.

What's more, we're bound to inspire a few of you with our leftover zeal. So write on, and send in comments and, well, if you will, letters.