The Interlude

Dearest friend,

How’s it going? I’ve missed you! Yesterday I got up, went for a walk, checked the news, finished work, watched TV, baked brownies, doomscrolled on Twitter, went for another walk, donated to mutual aid funds, took a bath, and went to bed. I did roughly the same thing the day before that. And last week. And last month. In some personal news…there isn’t much!

XOXO

That’s a pretty bleak letter. But as we endure the repetitiveness of a physically distanced life, handwritten correspondence has made a comeback. Unlike a series of lengthy text messages or a glitchy video chat, a thoughtful letter offers the uninterrupted opportunity to wax poetic. Long letters convey an enduring love, one that can outlast distance, isolation, and intangible social platforms. Similarly, a letter in the middle of a pandemic should serve as a cheerful escape from our loneliness and confinement, not a melancholic recap of the state of the world. So the next time you put pen to paper, rather than summarizing your attempt to make the TikTok coffee, consider filling the daunting space between Dear and Love with some of the following suggestions.

Quizzes

School’s out for summer, but who would object to discovering which PowerPuff Girl they are based on their favorite pasta shape? As part of the generation that grew up on Tiger Beat Magazine and BuzzFeed personality quizzes, I am consistently thrilled to write and receive handcrafted multiple choice assessments that don’t result in bad grades. And there are few greater joys than getting an indignant text along the lines of “I am not a Buttercup! Standardized testing is a scam!!”

Part of a “Which Popular Vampire Are You?” quiz I mailed to a friend in April 2020.

Poetry

Audre Lorde once wrote, “Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical.” Although letter writing is a thoughtful way to share the minutiae of your life, it can be time consuming. But you don’t always have to string all the words together yourself. For centuries, poets have been saying all the things you and I struggle to articulate. Consider subscribing to Pome by Matthew Ogle. Each day, Ogle will send a short poem or succinct snippet of poetry to your inbox. Simply transcribe that daily email into your letter and introduce your friends to unfamiliar works of art.

Recommendations

I will be the first to admit I’m awful at accepting advice and recommendations. “Oh, you must watch this movie!” and “I can’t believe you’ve never heard of this band!” can sound like condescending lectures in taste. But unlike a passing remark during a night out, a written list of films, songs, or books by someone who knows you feels personalized, making it a thoughtful sentiment.

Art

The most important part of letter writing is knowing your audience. If you have younger pen pals just learning how to read, try your hand at illustration. Add a painting of flowers you saw last week or a drawing of your pets. Show, don’t tell! And even if you’re writing to someone your age, don’t assume doodling in the margins will be frowned upon.

These pet sketches won’t get me into the Met, but my nieces are nice enough to appreciate the effort.

Magazine clippings

Reduce, reuse, recycle! Once you read your monthly magazine subscription, do you toss it out? Or stack it in a closet to gather dust? I don’t know if teenagers still make wall collages from glossy magazine cuttings of Hollywood heartthrobs, but the illustrations and photographs in my favorite subscriptions are too good not to share. The how-to guides, recipes, and crossword puzzles sandwiched inside People, Texas Monthly, and The New Yorker just beg to be shared.

Stamps

Not everyone can afford ornate stationery and Instagram-worthy wax seal sets. The surest way to get a letter back is to provide some spare materials with the one you send. Browse the limited edition sheets from the United States Postal Service and simultaneously support one of the last public goods in this country. Your friends will thank you.