Have you ever thought about writing a letter to a stranger? For nearly a decade, “Dear Stranger,” a project by Oregon Humanities, has connected Oregonians through an anonymous letter exchange. It’s not too late to join this year, if you can get your letter postmarked by March 1st.
With so much of our daily communication task based – like complaining about a bill, or urging a politician to act – writing letters is powerfully different, Ben Waterhouse, communications director for Oregon Humanities, told KLCC.
“These letters, they're not about convincing anyone of anything necessarily. It's just about talking about who you are and what's going on in your life and what you think and believe,” Waterhouse said.
Since the project’s start in 2014, more than 1,000 people have exchanged letters. Waterhouse said that every year, writers share many common experiences regardless of their location, beliefs, age, or background. And that diversity is evident regardless of what the year's topic is. Those experiences include raising children, caring for aging parents, and concerns about health.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Waterhouse said the letters were particularly moving, as isolation and fear affected so many people so deeply, but in different ways.
In addition to the personal nature of a letter’s content, there’s also something special about the look and feel of writing and receiving a letter.
“Letters in general are a really intimate format of communication that there's something about seeing the physical paper that somebody else has handled and that they often you know written in their own hands,” Waterhouse explained.
For this year’s theme, “underground,” writers are encouraged to explore things that are hidden or buried, but you can write on any topic. After submission, letters are matched with and sent to recipients.
More information, including where to mail your letter, and a release to sign, is available at OregonHumanities.org.
