Hello There

Hello There, 

My name is Jade and for the past few years now I have been doing an atrocious job of 'blogging'. 

This page was originally started as a way to stay connected with family and friends while I traveled overseas and quite frankly has not once been used for that purpose. 

Influenced by Joanna Goddard and her wonderfully warm yet punny opinions I thought that I too could write my opinions down and post them to the world and in some bizarre removed way may make some sort of difference. I realise that that also has not happened. 

 Under the label "Pinstripes and Playing Cards" (having promised my twin brother as a young teen that if ever we were to release an Album (in hindsight a laughable goal) that is what it would be called and failing to have thought of anything better settled on a somewhat-maybe memorable alliterate title that might seem charming in some abstract way) I wrote about Gestalt theories, ordering coffee and secret hand drawn maps of Paris- A place I hadn't yet visited but now love whole heartily. I become insecure in my opinions (surprise, surprise) so it dwindled to sporadic posts mainly about how I was going to refocus and restart. 

With that in mind after a little bit of searching I renamed this space "Meraki" - defined as "to do something with soul, creativity or love - to put something of yourself into your work". I thought it would be fitting to start afresh until my computer died two days later and I took it as a sign from the universe to maybe keep looking. 

So here we are. I am starting again. I am refocused and for the first time in a long time have a vision I can see myself committing to and enjoying. 

I have loved receiving written correspondence as long as I can remember. 

Unfortunately I am from the generation where computers were establishing themselves along side of us so never was afforded the opportunity to have an incredibly mysterious exotic pen pal from some country I had only ever dreamed of. I was the child who loved birthday cards more than presents and who to this day delights in receiving postcards.

There is something so wonderful to me about a letter. About someone taking the time to have sat down and written something be it the most magnificent prose you have ever laid eyes on or a short message just to touch base - just for you. It isn't a chain letter forwarded to you along with 8 others or an office memo sent to everyone in sight. It is yours alone.

So with that in mind I am committing myself to writing a letter each day. They will most likely be addressed to people famed or fictitious that I will never have the opportunity to meet and occasionally to a stranger I have met in passing but either way the recipient will be someone who I have found inspiring or provoking or just hilarious. I figure it is the aspiration (be it conscious or un) of the vast majority of people to make an impression and even though we live nowadays in a society that prides itself of the immediacy of electronic communication I thought it might be nice to use more that 140 characters to let someone know that I find them engaging and insightful even though the odds of them finding the letter are pretty much non-existent.

So Hello There, 

My name is Jade. 

It is a pleasure to meet you.

(Photo Katharine Hepburn writing a letter on the set of her Broadway play “The Philadelphia Story” in 1938 By Alfred Eisenstaedt. Historical archives of LIFE Magazine. Via Books and Art.)