Margaret & Helen’s blog is always full of interesting views on life. I guess it helps that in your eighties, you’ve seen it all before. Every year, Margaret writes a letter to the family – and is happy for the interested parties in the rest of the world to read it too. Here’s the 2013 version.
Tag: Letter
The importance of education [Letters of note]
Alexander Coward’s email to his students insisting that they turn up to class despite his colleagues going on strike has gone viral.
…do not fall into the trap of thinking that you focusing on your education is a selfish thing. It’s not a selfish thing. It’s the most noble thing you could do.
Society is investing in you so that you can help solve the many challenges we are going to face in the coming decades, from profound technological challenges to helping people with the age old search for human happiness and meaning.
That is why I am not canceling class tomorrow. Your education is really really important, not just to you, but in a far broader and wider reaching way than I think any of you have yet to fully appreciate.
Letter to the Telegraph, 1913, on women’s voting rights [Letters]
“Sir,
Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist outrages; but no one seems certain how to do so. There are two, and only two, ways in which this can be done. Both will be effectual:
1. Kill every woman in the United Kingdom.
2. Give women the vote.
Yours truly,
Bertha Brewster.
“
the original Tweet here via @LettersOfNote
Your loving mother (Letters of note)
On January 22nd of 1919, during her freshman year at college, 19-year-old Margaret Mitchell (the author of Gone with the Wind) received word that her mother had fallen ill as a result of a deadly flu pandemic that was sweeping the globe, along with instructions from her father to return home. A few days later, she did just that, only to be greeted at the train station by her brother with the tragic news that their mother had succumbed to pneumonia the day before. As they travelled home from the station, he passed her this beautiful letter.
PS: I missed out posting the link to the domino’s video yesterday. Here it is
You are a true man [Letters of note]
Correspondence between people, whether they know one another or not, is always fascinating to me. And reading this exchange between poet Walt Whitman & Abraham Stoker (the author of Dracula), was another highlight for me.
I embrace you with all my heart: Albert Camus [Letters of note]
A Nobel Prize winner’s letter of gratitude to his teacher.
..when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened.
A weeding announcement to the family: Mark Twain [Letters]
Mark Twain wrote this letter to his “mother & brother & sisters & nephew & niece & Margaret”, announcing his engagement to Olivia Langdon, who was to remain his wife for the next 34 years.
Letters of note: Make your soul grow – Kurt Vonnegut
Back in 2006, a group of students at Xavier High School in New York City (one of whom, “JT,” submitted this letter) were given an assignment by their English teacher, Ms. Lockwood, that was to test their persuasive writing skills: they were asked to write to their favourite author and ask him or her to visit the school. Five of those pupils chose Kurt Vonnegut. His reply was the only response the class received
A dawg that can hunt: Advice for selecting a leader [Article]
The only thing better than a story-teller Bob Fulghum is a reminiscing Bob Fulghum. He shared this letter he wrote from decades ago, titled Benediction.
I am there in the sunset [Letters of note]
A poignant letter from a cemetery headstone:
If you get lonely just look for me. I am there in the sunset, listen closely and I will whisper my blessing.