Coming on January 30th

Here it is the newest Love Stamp for 2013.  It is due to be released this Wednesday.  Why am I excited about a stamp?  I adore letters, cards, postcards, notes -- anything that comes into my mailbox with handwriting on it.  February gives me an opportunity to focus on the art of the handwritten note.  In an essay titled "The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note" author Phillip Hensher says that, "handwriting is less important in our lives than it ever has been.  In a British survey carried out in June (2012), it was discovered that the average time since an adult wrote anything at all by hand was 41 days.  One in three people said that they hadn't written anything by hand for at least six months.  Two out of three said that the last thing they wrote was for their eyes only -- a hastily scribbled note, a shopping list or a reminder....it's an unfortunate trend.  Handwriting can be untidy and malformed and difficult to read, but there is always going to be someone who recognizes even the worst of handwritings and treasure it because of who it comes from.  Many people have, in a box somewhere, their grandparents' letters and postcards, and they think of them as treasured possessions.  They are.  But these days, to tell other people about these possessions, we reach for electronic media.  We write something that, in five years, will have completely vanished -- and will never mean as much as a pen, and a choice of ink, and some well chosen words on paper."  AMEN TO THAT.