100 Stamps

Ali Bakhtiari

“I buy a hundred stamps at a time because it reminds me to make cards and letters a priority,” said a friend named Tom recently over lunch.

I’d been lamenting the fact that my own card and letter writing had dropped off in recent months. Tom always inspires me to keep the main thing the main thing — and relationships, both with God and others, are his priority. 

“People love getting personal mail,” Tom continued. 

I knew he was right. I didn’t run to the post office to buy a hundred stamps — at least not yet, but I did handwrite two cards and mail them. One was to a client, and the other was to someone who lost her husband to cancer recently. 

As someone who has been downsizing for years, including print books in favor of e-books, I don’t downsize the cards and letters I’ve received over the years. They are touchstones to the past and I feel too connected to get rid of them.

Emily Dickinson once said, “A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.”

It’s not only the mind of a person but it’s also his or her heart. We’re extremely vulnerable in handwritten correspondence — far more so than in electronic correspondence, even though I prefer the more technological tools we have available today. 

How are you doing with sending cards and letters? Has your production dropped off in recent years? Is it time to get back after it? ​