52 Letters, 365 Photos … and more

In my editor’s note for our December issue , I wrote about finding a treasure trove of hand-written letters in my basement from friends and relatives. They were decades old and full of wonderful memories. Nostalgic for the days of receiving letters in the mail, letters I could save and revisit for years to come, I resolved to write some letters of my own. As these things often go, it was only a few weeks into December when I saw a post on Twitter from Katy Wolk-Stanley, Portland’s very own Nonconsumer Advocate , announcing a challenge she was posing on her blog: 52 Weeks, 52 Letters . Here’s how Katy put it: “I am going to write 52 letters in 2011. Not necessarily to 52 different people, and I imagine that many of them will actually live in the same city as I do. I invite you to join this challenge. Write to those you’ve lost contact with and write to those you chat with on a daily basis. Write to your spouse, maybe even your own children.” I hadn’t planned to write quite that many letters, but I thought it was interesting that at least two of us had a similar idea at the same time. (As it turns out, she got the idea from a friend, so it was more than two! And to be fair, Katy posed a similar challenge in 2009, so she beat me.) A week or so later I saw a post on Twitter (yes, I spend too much time on Twitter!) about the 365 Project , “a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo,” according to the website. Another challenge, I thought, to help us take the time to notice and document what’s important in life. Why do we need such structured programs to help us remember to write letters to our friends or take a picture and document our daily lives? Probably just because we’re all so busy, but I for one am always more consistent when I have a structure or a schedule to follow. I clean the house on Fridays. I pay the bills on the 13th and the 27th of the month. Otherwise, it might just not get done. Both of these projects tie in closely with another article in our December issue , “What’s Your Story? Preserving Your Family’s Unique History,” by the way. What’s your feeling about such structured challenges? Have you participated in any yourself? If you were going to create such a project, what would it be?

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52 Letters, 365 Photos … and more