The Write Thing: Send A Handwritten Note

This perfect Mother’s Day gift costs nothing more than thought and time—plus proves the pen is mightier than the charge card.

KEEPING IT REAL | Wherever you look on the internet today you’re going to be clobbered with last-minute gift ideas. Since when did Mother’s Day (this coming Sunday), an occasion honoring maternal bonds and the influence of mothers on society, become so hyper-commercialized that we now feel compelled to prove our mother love by purchasing the sorts of presents typically reserved for birthdays or Christmas.

Flowers and corner-store cards are one thing, says my friend Tansy Palmer, “but gadgets and gift certificates for Mother’s Day? No way. Mother’s Day is about gratitude and emotional connection not buying stuff.”

Write This Time

Palmer found a way cut through the growing consumerism around Mother’s Day by continuing a tradition with her kids that began with her own dear mother. When Palmer was seven-years-old, her mom asked her to write her a letter about the two of them as a Mother’s Day gift. It was not acceptable to add a few sentences to a store-bought card; her mom wanted a proper handwritten letter, an activity young Tansy grumbled about doing at first but came to treasure later.

Palmer still hand writes a letter to her mother each year, and now her kids hand write letters to her. “This is going to sound a little woo woo, but we share these letters with each other on Mother’s Day. They help us remember who we once were and how we used to think—and how our penmanship has evolved or devolved—and they remind us of what we mean to each other now.” —Ruth Rainey

Art, top to bottom: Via Louloubelle, Cy Twombly