It has been an exceptionally long time since I have seen something on social media that impresses or interests me. So much is repetitive: complaints, bragging, funny videos, or memes. However, what has caught my eye of late is the number of posts about the increase of handwritten letters.
Numerous posts have been placed with photos of letters received from Jehovah’s Witnesses. Posts have resulted in a wonderful variety of comments, both positive and negative. Some of which make for interesting reading, and others simply display the mentality of the person posting.
However, what I find interesting about these posts is not that they are about letters from Jehovah’s Witnesses. Although it tickles me that there appear to be more posts on Facebook about the letters than about door knocking pre-covid, what really interests me is that whenever a picture of a letter is posted, they read as though they were written with an intent to inform and encourage.
This puts the letters from Jehovah’s Witnesses in the same category as another type of letter you often see posted on Facebook with a high comment rate. Handwritten notes to people about their dog’s behaviour. Once again, when read, these letters are obviously written with an intent to inform and assist.
So, the question arises: With so many bills, along with political and junk mail that reach our letterboxes each week, why are we so upset or disturbed when receiving something personal with the intent of informing, assisting, or encouraging us? Bitter to the point that we take a photo, put it on Facebook, write a post about it and no doubt stay glued to read the comments?
I find this trend enthralling. What has made our community so pessimistic? I started listening with ferocious curiosity as people spoke to and around me. What I heard was nothing but insanity! If someone is skinny, they are on drugs. Fat? They need to lose weight. Smoke weed and they are a druggie. Drink and they are an alcoholic. Dress well? They are considered conceited but if dress down, they are accused of letting themselves go. Speak their mind (even when asked too) and they are rude but stay quiet and they are a snob. If someone is sociable, they are a party animal and if they keep to themselves, they are detached. Seriously! How can anyone survive when they are constantly being judged? What is more, what are we teaching our kids?
Perhaps it is time to learn a lesson from these letters we receive in our letterbox regardless of the subject. Someone has taken the time and mustered up the courage to handwrite a letter containing information that they think you may want to know. If you don’t want to know it, do with it as you wish but know that someone somewhere thought enough about you to want to encourage or inform you, not criticise you, in this game of life.
Will you pay this thoughtfulness forward by building someone else up?