The physical letter may be a dying breed of communication, but the art of sitting down and handwriting something still holds a very sacred place in humanity’s culture. From personal diaries to university notes to yearly Christmas cards, you probably have some handwritten tradition that has survived into the information age. And even if all your communication is digitized, many of us have a collection of handcrafted messages from before our time: family letters that have been kept and handed down the generations, some photos with personal notes on the back, or even a gifted book with a handwritten preface. We hold onto these handcrafted communications because they stand in contrast to the impersonal, autocorrected texts and emails of the modern era. They bleed personality: Grandma’s cursive requires a trained translator, Dad’s college notes have doodles on them, and Mom dots her i’s with circles and signs her cards with a swirly underline. The writing itself was, in a way, a signature—something individual and even special. So, today, we thought we’d bring you a few stories from Anne Rutherford, Lynn Ruehlmann, Rod Nichols, and Rosie Cutrer about notes, letters, and all the quirky communications that make their way through the mail system. Maybe they’ll inspire you to put pen to paper yourself!

On today’s episode, enjoy the following:

Story Spotlight: “An Everyday Hero” by Anne Rutherford on The Habit of Joy: Stories of Living into Our True Selves (12:32)

Storytime Pieces:

“Jungle Jaguar” by Lynn Ruehlmann on Mischief! Adventures of a Daydreamy Child (12:31)

“To the Boys at Cutter Bill’s Bar” by Rod Nichols on Visit a Spell, Pard: Western Music, Poetry, and Stories (1:49)

"Lois Lane" by Rosie Cutrer on The Blackthorn Walking Stick and Other Tales (15:24)