I find the human race to be a curious bunch.
We seem to have an irresistible urge to communicate with each other, even to the
extent that we reach out to people who we don’t even know, and conversely who will
never know who we are.
We carve our initials into the bark of trees so
someone we don’t know and will never know, will see them and know we were there
even though they will never know who we are, or why we were there.
We write notes, seal them in bottles, and cast them
adrift into the ocean with the faint hope that someone we don’t know will find
it, but they will more than likely never know who we are.
We paint obnoxious graffiti on walls and bridges in
a desperate attempt to let people we have never met know that we were there,
even though those same people don’t and may never know us, but will think our
message and communication techniques are disgusting.
We place flowers, teddy bears, ribbons, and all sorts of other mementos at
memorial sights so that people, we don’t know, will know that we were there and that we
cared.
Today I found another novel way that people are attempting to
communicate with others that they don’t know. It’s called “Letter
Boxing”. I was hiking down a hill off the beaten path when, by chance, I
found this small box hidden under a Yucca plant. In the box I discovered
a rubber stamp, a small blank notebook, and a type written instruction sheet.
The idea is to carry your own rubber stamp, ink pad, and note book. You
stamp your stamp into the book in the “Letter Box” and stamp their stamp into
your own notebook. Once this is done you put it all back the way you
found it…and move on. I am not sure what the specific objective behind
all this is, but again we seem to want to let someone we don’t know be aware
that we were there. “Curiouser and curiouser”.
