Letters of Love, Forgiveness and Longing

When was the last time you put pen to paper to write a letter? A letter which was not a Christmas card, or an invitation to a ceremony?

România Internațional, 20.04.2014, 13:12

When was the last time you put pen to paper to write a letter? A letter which was not a Christmas card, or an invitation to a ceremony? A letter you wrote with your heart, beginning “ Dear….”and ending: ”Yours…”? A long time must have passed since you did that. As for the author of this text, it’s been more than 4 years and that letter was sent from an airport, between two flights. Of course, we live in the speed age, and besides, who’s got time to expect a letter via snail-mail, since these days we can INSTANTLY communicate with anyone, anywhere? Yet modern means of communication confine us to a finite and dwindling number of characters we can send. Then there’s our own handwriting, which we very rarely use and which is most likely hard to read by our prospective recipients.

Loredana Minteanu is a young woman who got her inspiration from a production that has recently received an Oscar nomination. She came up with the idea of offering a free-of-charge service, mainly consisting of transcribing messages on recycled paper, using ink. She says it is a project aimed at creating an alternative special means of communication, a much more personal one, laying emphasis on emotion, on a story, on those simple gestures that matter.

Loredana Minteanu: ”A special project with no special occasion, that’s how we called it. Practically it is a free-of-charge service of writing on recycled paper using a fountain pen, which also includes delivery by bike. It is also an eco-responsible concept. In fact, we become the sender’s extension. At our fingertips we have all state-of-the-art gadgets you can think of, that might lure us into writing an email, a text message or other virtual messages. For no one to find any excuse whatsoever, we thought it would be easier if someone used a fountain pen, to transcribe a personal message. We do not compose, we simply transcribe the message on paper. Maybe some of them have a bad handwriting.”

Loredana Munteanu and her colleague in the “Art doesn’t bite” team have already received more than 250 demands since early March, when they announced they intended to transcribe and deliver letters around Bucharest. The messages, Loredana says, are deeply touching. They are not just exchanges of love letters between a man and a woman. Recipients also include old friends, or parents and even grandparents of those who, for one reason or another, had not written for a long time. For Loredana, the most touching letter was sent by a young girl, in whose story she saw herself.

Loredana Minteanu:” There’s this girl who has been living in Brussels for three years and who feels terribly sorry she couldn’t see her mother, she’s asking for forgiveness. I think she was crying as she kept on writing, she also jotted down it was three a.m. and she was listening to a cut which reminded her of her mother, who was all alone in Bucharest, and she hoped she could return at least for Easter, after three years. I am also here and mom is not in the country, I sort of recognized myself in the girl’s story, it’s just that we swapped roles, this time it’s the daughter who lives in Bucharest and her mother lives in another country.”

How much does it cost to send such a letter, beautifully hand-written and sealed just like in the old days, in red wax, delivered at the recipient’s address? Well, it costs nothing. The service is completely free-of-charge. Loredana Munteanu tells us how that can be possible.

Loredana Minteanu: ” We’ve got partners who support us, and thanks to them this kind of service is free of charge. After filling in the form on our website, the sender can pick a surprise offered by our partners, also for free: a book or cosmetics. We hope people might show an increasing opening, we do hope they can get closer to one another, also with the help of such gestures. Of late, it’s people we’ve been using, and not objects. We should really use this service, and think more often of the people in our life.”

The service will be available as long as it is humanely possible…Loredana says they have already received messages form other cities, asking them if they could extend their delivery area.

Loredana Minteanu: ” We’re very happy that ever since we started promoting the service, progress has been made very fast, and there are people writing to us from other cities, from around the country; they ask if the service can reach other cities across Romania as well, such as Cluj, Deva, Timisoara and Iasi. They say they will see to it that things should be done the proper way. There are cycling organizations. It is really nice to see the idea caught on and there are lots of people who can have someone to write a letter to. We encourage everyone at least to think of someone in their life whom they hold most dear, someone to whom they can make such a surprise. They should think who can deserve such a letter. “

So how about writing with your heart and not just touching the knobs, how about writing a letter someone dear in your life should receive soon?