Send email out of the blue
Have you ever received a personal letter through the post? Not the usual postal dross, but a letter from someone you know, or who wanted to write to you. It's a very special feeling: for just a moment, something almost exclusively boring sparkles with magic. The experience feels aglow with positivity and happiness (contents of the missive notwithstanding). For the duration of our relationship, and even after having moved in together, I have made a point to hand-write a letter to B— about once a month. What better way to surprise someone, make their day a little brighter, and let them know you're thinking about them by turning something mundane into something magical for a minute?
If I open my email inbox right now, I see two things. The first is my abject failure to achieve inbox zero, writ in 72-point bold-face Impact. And the second is a massive pile of newsletters, purchase receipts, tracking information, and marketing emails. And for a lot of people that's mostly what email is today, I suppose. I try to make liberal use of filters, masked email addresses, and the unsubscribe button, but things get through all the time. And it's just boring. It feels like a to-do list. It's an endless heap. Rarely do I receive emails out of nowhere from real human beings1, but when I do it gives me that same warm glow as receiving physical post. It transpires that email is still a whole lot like real mail.
Off the back of my post Obfuscate your email, I got in touch with Imperfect to let them know of my sort-of reply to their post which had inspired mine. I began my email with "I hope you don't mind my email out of the blue," and in their reply Imperfect asked me if I had "considered posting about how people should send more emails out of the blue." I had not, but the idea stuck with me. I guess if you're reading this you can see where the train of thought went!
Have mused on the matter, it turns out I strongly believe that we should be sending more emails out of the blue. Whether to a stranger or a close confidante, it feels good to make others feel good, and it feels good to send and receive emails, just like it feels good to receive a letter. So I encourage you, dear reader, to send more emails. Help build the small web community by replying to blog posts that have a "reply by email" link at the bottom. Get in touch with bloggers through their contact pages. Make friends. Send an email, and make someone's day!
💬 I don't have comments on my blog, but you can reply by email instead!
Footnotes
Although recently I have been getting emails meant for a charity with a domain that is very similar to mine (not this one). The contents are typically uninteresting. But it's a funny, regular occurrence!↩