Postcards: A Travelogue of my Mind's Missives and Gripes: December 2009

Contained herein are some New Year's postcards that I created and mailed to friends. I have been creating my own postcards for several months, but because I never seen them again once they are mailed out (and some effort is required to make them) I decided to start scanning and sharing them. All I use are blank 4x6 index cards, scraps of paper I find laying around and any interesting images I find inside magazines and newspapers. Note that all my creations are from snail mail for snail mail. There are NO preprinted, diecut, acid-free, or otherwise prettified scrapbook paper--just whatever is deliverd to my door. In addition, most of my postcards are in the form of missives or gripes--missives being the thoughtful messages to special friends and family--while gripes reflect my crumudgeony, particularly when they are sent to politicians (COMING!). BELOW: A gripe about growing older.

I am anything but a steadfast letter writer. Despite their lack of text, like a letter, my postcards always take in the personal interests and lives of those I send them to whether in grahpic or textual form. And, while it is certainly possible to make electronic postcards and send them; my postcards truly travel, passed along hand-to-hand from me to mail sorters to a live postal delivery person somewhere out there--not in cyberspace, but in real space. And, there is something about the hard scrabble look of exposed messages on paper that have been handled by living, breathing people. The postcards do attract dirt and wear, and indeed, I hear that some of my postcards reach their destination in a rather shabby state. In contrast, electronic messages may be tidy and graphically more perfect, but let's face it: souless.

Yes, in some ways this blog is very anti-technology. However, I am certainly no Luddite who fantasizes about crashing and burning all computerized messaging systems. I love technology and have been using computers since 1978 when I was a copy person for a local newspaper. But, I love paper. Furthermore, I know people miss snail mail--at least mail that isn't addressed to Occupant or isn't a recepticle for bills and annoying political and commercial adverstisements. Ultimately, my postcards are part of a mission to foster communication that can be as fun as it is meaningful. BELOW: A fun missive to a contemporary of mine (we graduated from High School in 1974).

I know that my small creations make people smile. Moreover, I hope that this blog inspires you to do the same whether you make them yourself or occaisionally shoot off a standard postcard or letter to your friends and family. Let's face it: Most email and social networking messages aren't worth printing and keeping; those that are might get saved for a few months but usually end up in an electronic trash bin--never saved. While hardly works of high art, I doubt people throw my postcards away--some recipients I know store them away. BELOW: A Happy New Year missive to My sister, who for the first time in her life is mammaless (no dogs no cats not even any birds...just some tropical fish).

There was an incident that motivated me to start my snail mail campaign. When my mother went into an asisted living facility a couple years ago, I cleaned out her house and found a box with dozens of old letters from her family--letters that gave me a unique insight into Mother and family dramas that would have been otherwise undiscovered. Not sure what my postcards reveal about me, they are at least one small testimony to my creative existence--items that hopefully, will leave some rememberance of me if I end up in assisted living or elsewhere. These postcards travel not just through real time and space, but over time will reflect the travels my mind will be taking over the years. I hope you enjoy them as I add more each week.