Writing Letters

I think anyone who reads my stuff with any regularity knows I send mail like it's going out of style (well, it is, but that's beside the point). But as often as I talk about postcards, I don't really talk about my letters so much.

Basically, if you aren't related to me and you matter to me in some important way, you get a letter. It's that simple. I've written them to friends, teachers, veterans, and even complete strangers when I felt like striking up a penpal relationship. And not some short one page nonsense - I write long letters. At least three or four pages usually.

So when Letters-To-Myself put up a challenge to write a letter to a teacher, I think it was inevitable that I would ending up writing one for Minnick. Everyone important gets a letter. That's how I operate.

I don't really know how or why I began doing that, but I think it's a good habit to cultivate. People deserve to know when they're making a difference, even if it's only to one person. Letters are the best way I've found to say what you need to say to someone, when you need to get all the thoughts organized, or even when you don't know what to say at all.

One of the reasons I wasn't going to write it was because I wasn't sure what I could say that he didn't already know. But once I started, I found it. I knew I had something to say, but I had to find it first and that's when that old essay popped up and I guess a few things just clicked for me.

Anyway, I was really writing to say I did give it to him this afternoon, because I know someone will ask me that and I may as well get it out of the way. Apparently, you get those sorts of letters when you need them.