THE 15TH OF EACH MONTH - WON'T YOU PARTICIPATE?!

“Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.” (Galatians 6:11)

A few days ago while perusing the internet, I came across a Facebook page dedicated to promoting and preserving the Canadian postal service (known as “Canada Post”) . It’s found at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-Canada-Post-Alive-Send-a-Letter-Day-15th-of-Every-Month/138062492937524

The page strongly encourages anyone in Canada who wants to keep Canada Post alive to mail a letter on the 15th of each month. (That might not sound like much, but if virtually every Canadian adult mailed a letter on the 15th of each month, it WOULD, in fact, make quite a difference!)

Canada Post is facing the same problem as is the United States Postal Service. During the past fifteen years, the volume of mail has greatly declined as not only are most of us (including me) opting to send our letters as e-mails rather than traditional letters, AND as many pay their bills on-line rather than mailing in payments the old-fashioned way,

PLEASE DON’T MISUNDERSTAND! I’m not suggesting we put a halt to progress! Without a doubt, the volume of letters handled by Canada Post and the United States Postal Service is probably never going to to again reach the mail volume of say, 1994. But the potential for Canada Post and for the United States Postal Service to continue decline and then to TOTALLY CEASE within the next few years is very real and even likely. I know, I know: There are all the jokes about “snail mail”, overpaid postal workers, and inefficiency. However, when these postal services are gone, we’ll miss them.

Coincidentally, I read recently that the State of Indiana is about to become the first state to no longer require that cursive handwriting be taught in their schools. Most of us don’t use cursive writing anymore, but that’s also quite a loss. I’m an avid writer, including being an avid letter writer. Twenty or more years ago, it was not unusual for me to write and mail twenty or more letters each month including many handwritten letters. Admittedly, NOW it’s rare for me to send even one handwritten letter a month.

THINK OF THIS: We’ve all become really lazy. It’s so easy to just type something on the computer and instantly send it. One hundred years ago, in 1911, the typical American MAN worked twelve hours a day, six days a week- many times doing difficult factory work. Yet, it was not unusual in 1911 for a blue-collar MAN to sit down on a Sunday afternoon or evening and write a two or three page letter to a relative or friend in “perfect” cursive handwriting. Even as “recently” as the 1950s and 1960s, it was not THAT unusual for Americans (including MEN) to write such letters, though usually not as long or as neat as the letters of circa 1911. It was a big thrill to get a letter. I can remember as a kid that when a relative sent our family a letter, my father would happily read it aloud during our evening meal and we’d all talk about the letter as a family. Today, you couldn’t PAY most Americans to sit down, HAND WRITE a letter to a friend or relative, and MAIL it the old-fashioned way.

Well, I’ve decided to take a suggestion from the Canada Post Facebook page! On the 15th of each month, I’m going to mail a letter. BUT I’m going to take things a step further. Mailing a bill payment or something like that is NOT going to count. On the 15th of each month, I’m going to HAND WRITE a letter to a friend or relative mail mail it by U.S. mail. It probably won’t be REAL long, but I’ll make it positive, encouraging, and affirming.

I wanted to share this idea with you. I truly hope people WON’T just roll their eyes and “blow off” this suggestion. Rather, I hope and pray that many, many people will develop the habit of writing and mailing a handwritten on the 15th day of each month. It would be interesting to see what sort of impact such a practice could make!