Some stationäry inspiration… The Wyeth Hotel Public Supply Notebook, $20 In a cool collab between the ever-chic Williamburg's Wythe Hotel and the innovative Public Supply, a for-profit company that gives 25% of its net profits to high need classrooms focused on creativity, this notebook features the gorgeous Wythe wallpaper pattern designed by Dan Funderburgh.
An additional treat to staying at the Wyeth is that they will mail any letter you write from the hotel for free. That gets gratitude hands from us! Wyeth you do it write ;)
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The British Express asked a forensic handwriting expert to examine Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s annual letter signatures. It appears those mere 11 letters reveal quite a bit about their current psychological state. Do tell...
Oh no! Homesick Harry. Clearly, there are no secrets when you sign :( As often happens, I fall down a rabbit hole of research and find myself in the most amazing places. I am currently deep, deep, deep in the 800+ page book of love letters between artist Georgia O'Keeffe and photograher/gallerist Alfred Stieglitz. Holy cow, those two know how to woo!
Fortunately, I knew very little about their relationships. Unfortunately, I've since googled a bit too much and know we're headed for quite a rollercoaster ride. But, either way, their letters are so engaging -the ride is thrilling! Thinking about love letters, I came across the article: "How to Write a Love Letter, According to Experts." At first, I wanted to hate this article. What gall to think you can tell someone how to write a love letter! What a presumption to claim to be a love expert!?! Either you got it or you don't. Right? Well... I read on and actually agreed with all the advice (things like be authentic, focus on specifics and go deep, use your voice, etc.). But the jury is still out if these tips can aid the lovers' search for expression. The Stieglitz/O'Keeffe letters are amazing (and only a portion of the total collection). Beyond being aesthetically stunning (what else would you expect from those two) - including O'Keeffe's right alignment and swirly lines, and Stieglitz's perfectly thick script and unparalleled openness - these two perfected epistolary hotness. They were suggestive but not crude, tantalizing as they built to a crescendo, and both quite specific about what they admired in one another and how each completed the other. O’Keeffe once asked Stieglitz to not “write me those letters that always knock me down.” She goes on to say that Alfred puts “so much of himself into those letters” that she can hardly stand it. They are like “too much light- you shut your eyes and put one hand over them and then feel round with the other hand for something to steady yourself by.” What a treasure that we still have these letters for all to read, enjoy, and be in awe of. I cannot get enough so it's a good thing there are thousands of these odes to comb through! In one of the crazier, small world, no that didn’t just happen life events, I was reading this Reuters’ article on the power and importance of thank you notes in the business world and they quoted the expert Christina Cookman.
CHRISTINA COOKMAN!!!??! She was my bestest friend in the whole world from ages six to 12! She walked up to me on the first day of school, looked me in the eyes and said, “Do you want to be my friend?” Now, come on, she was my kind of girl. Hell, yes, I replied (in a six-year old version, I’m sure). I’m thrilled to see that we have cross paths again - this time in our firm belief in the power of letters! I’m scouring the internet trying to find an address to handwrite her a note but so far, no success. I will find her. I will write her. And, most importantly, I will thank her for walking up to me on day one and giving me the best gift anyone can give, her awesome friendship! What a pal! That is the best argument for thank you notes yet! ... Awesome update: Within an hour of writing this post and tweeting to the attention of the super cool Reuters' journalist Chris Taylor, both Chris and Cookie sent me her address! And 10 minutes later, I was stamping my letter to her. Booyah, baby! It's the perfect blend of old school and technology!! There are two things I find very striking about the beautiful opinion piece, The Gift of Shared Grief, published in yesterday’s New York Times: 1) It is one of the top trending stories and 2) I never cease to be amazed by the innate human desire to hold a thing belonging to someone we love and/or cared for after they pass.
The whole purpose of this website is to encourage people to write more letters. Letters function on so many levels. They are meditative in how they require you to stop and focus. They provide joy to both the sender and receiver. They are a part of you - you touched the letter physically and you touch the receiver emotionally. And it can be a keepsake. Recently, I learned some new details about a friend’s death 30 years ago. I immediately thought of the drawings she sent me in college and needed to find them. That then led me to want to see my mother’s handwriting. She died 15 years ago and two physical things make me feel so connected to her - her gold Rolex watch and her handwriting. The article in the Times touches on all of these points and clearly touched many readers as it rose up the top trending list. It’s a heartwarming reminder that we are all the same on some level. We all want connection. We all want to be loved. And we want to remember and be remembered. Letters accomplish all of that. Write!!! In somewhat odd, but very regal handwriting news, Meghan Markle hand wrote affirmative, empowering messages on bananas (yes, on yellow bananas not yellow pads) to be included in charitable donations to sex workers living on the streets of Bristol, England.
According to the Vanity Fair article, Markle and Prince Harry made an unscheduled stop at One25, a charity that supports women trapped in prostitution. When she saw the food items included in the donation bags, Markle came up with the idea to write sweet notes to the women on the bananas. Some of the affirmations were: “YOU ARE STRONG,” “YOU ARE LOVED,” and “YOU ARE BRAVE.” It's been previously reported that Markle is a huge handwriting fan. She even worked as a freelance calligrapher on the side when she started acting. Bananagrams may or may not take off but either way, knowing that we have a handwriting patron in the royal family is a wonderful thing! Today, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “Humans Question Their AI-Based Future.” Hum… good question.
The author cites a study by Pew Research Center that canvassed 1,000 “AI experts” and found that “63% of respondents were optimistic, predicting that most individuals will mostly be better off, while 37% thought otherwise. But optimistic or not, most experts expressed concerns about the long-term impact of AI on “the essential elements of being human.”” D’ya think!!? The respondents cited concerns from control over their own lives and surveillance and data collection worries to fears of AI taking human jobs and the subsequent social upheaval! Holy %$@#! There are clearly some benefits to AI but the need to remain human is my number one goal. And you know what I’m going to say… three words… write more letters!!! Yes, that will save us all! To celebrate National Handwriting Day, I want to celebrate my friends and family’s handwriting! I adore handwriting- it is so unique, almost like a fingerprint, but we can actually change our writing as we evolve. We can print, we can write in script, we can try calligraphy or bubble letters (little known fact to most, I ROCK the bubble letters!). That being said, I desperately wanted beautiful handwriting when I was younger and no matter how much I tried, I could never achieve my goal. I started with a nondescript style, the went so teeny tiny my teacher said I was trying to make her go blind, then it grew bigger and I hoped cooler but I gave up trying when I addressed some envelopes for my father for a summer job and he remarked, “I thought you had neat handwriting.” Ha! My parents’ handwriting always intrigued me (image above). My father’s handwriting is the most distinctive writing I’ve ever seen. His big, bubbly letters with circle-dotted “i”s seemed to run totally counter to his super professional, always three piece suit-wearing demeanor (top image). My mother was a gorgeous, elegant, refined, petite woman with the worst chicken scrawl you’ve ever seen (second image above). My younger sister is reserved and kind and her handwriting is bold and wild (below)! My two college roommates have gorgeous writing. Becky, who is creative and crunchy, has such beautifully structured handwriting always accompanied by illustrations and different colored inks. Stephanie’s writing (below) has the carefree elegance I always wanted (her father is an architect so I think there’s a bit of nature/nurture there). My mother-in-law and I first bonded over an epistolary relationship as we mutually admired each other’s thank you notes. Her writing will always be dear to my heart. My great friend and writing buddy/therapist writes in easygoing script (below) as she laments the awful scrawl of the suffragette Susan B. Anthony she’s trying to decipher. Anthony's handwriting (below) looks more like art than handwriting. I love my hysterical cousin Marj’s post-it note. So sad that the hardware store is closing. Darn you Home Depot! And to finish, here is my great high school friend's beautiful writing. Those pretty all caps are somehow bold and soft at the same time. And I love the pink felt pen choice. Thank you to all my friends and family who honored my odd request to send me a photo of their handwriting. Writing is both personal but public. I wish that we could see more of it!!!
Wednesday is National Handwriting Day because January 23rd was John Hancock’s birthday. As the most famous signature on the Declaration of Independence, there are many rumors surrounding why his signature was so big. Some say after signing, Hancock commented that he wrote his name so large so the “fat old King could read it without his spectacles.” Others say it was merely his way to show his enthusiastic support.
What is known is that Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration because it was his right as the president of the Continental Congress. And, as president, his signature was centered below the text. Then, it was customary for the other delegates to sign at the right, below the text, in geographical order of the states they represented. Hancock had a big personality. His friend, Samuel Adams, was supposedly concerned about his "conspicuous lifestyle." According to the Constitution Center, he may have been the richest man in New England when he inherited his shipping fortune. He was super smart, graduating Harvard at 17, and stood with the patriots despite his elite, Loyalist social status. All in all, his signature is elegant, big and bold- just like he was. At the time, the saying went, “a good hand was the sign of a good man.” I suggest you celebrate Hancock and handwriting and show us what a good (wo)man you are! Write away! Study after study prove the endless benefits of handwriting. The following research shows handwriting makes you happier, increases your brain function, improves your memory, helps you write better content and even boosts your immune system. After reading this, you will without a doubt run to get that pen and paper and write away!
Writing makes you happier Kent State University Professor Steve Toepfer asked his students to write letters of gratitude (for a gift, a passing smile, or anything) and found writing thank you notes significantly improved writers’ happiness and satisfaction and decreased depressive symptoms. Even better, the benefits of writing had a cumulative effect over time. “As they wrote, up to three letters, results showed increasing benefits. The more letter writing people did, the more they improved significantly on happiness and life satisfaction. The new and potentially important finding is that depressive symptoms decreased. By writing these letters – 15 to 20 minutes each, once a week for three weeks to different people – well-being increased significantly. There is a cumulative effect, too. If you write over time, you’ll feel happier, you’ll feel more satisfied, and if you’re suffering from depressive symptoms, your symptoms will decrease.” Another study found that people writing gratitude letters, “significantly underestimated how surprised recipients would be about why expressers were grateful, overestimated how awkward recipients would feel, and underestimated how positive recipients would feel.” Writing increases your brain function French psychologist Stanislas Dehaene found writing stimulates your brain, “When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated.” When this neurological function is active, it makes learning easier. A 2012 study determined that handwriting may facilitate reading acquisition in young children. An Indiana University study showed that children who wrote by hand had much more "adult-like" neural activity than those who just looked at the letters. Psychology Today reports that cursive writing trains the brain to learn “functional specialization” which is the capacity for optimal efficiency. “In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during the learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.” Handwriting also increases brain power by training the brain “to use different parts of the brain for different functions, which helps with work efficiency.” Cursive writing integrates visual and tactile information and fine motor skills. The Psychology Today article concludes, “The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument. “ Holy cow! Writing improves your memory Research in Psychological Science found that students who used laptops to take notes versus pen and paper had a substantially worse understanding of class lectures (as measured by a standardized test) than those who took notes with pen and paper. Because we can type faster than we can write, if we type what we hear we spend less time processing what we’re hearing. If we hand write, we have to process and condense what we hear to write it down. Writing helps you write better content Other studies show that handwriting increases the content quality of what you write. “There is a direct relationship between quality of handwriting and the quality of written text." Writing boosts your immune system This study might be the most amazing/hardest to believe and isn't specifically talking about handwriting but writing in general but an American Psychological Association study discovered that writing can not only help people learn from negative experiences, it can boost their immune system. “New research suggests expressive writing may also offer physical benefits to people battling terminal or life-threatening diseases.” I do wonder if there are some spurious variables at work here - perhaps because writing incorporates some factors of the Blue Zone longevity study. All in all, the findings are overwhelmingly positive. Writing makes our lives way better. But we knew that, duh! |
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