[Music]
when was the last time you wrote a
letter not a text or tweet where direct
messages was with an emoji not even a
carefully crafted email but an actual
honest-to-god letter one that you set
down with pen and paper and as the words
flowed you told someone you love them or
that you missed them or that you were
sorry if you’re like a lot of people
perhaps it’s been a while but I’m here
to tell you that needs to change
because I believe that the simple act of
handwriting a letter can fundamentally
change who you are as a person
can impact the recipient in immeasurable
ways and if done often enough can change
who we are as a society now you may be
asking yourself how could the simple act
of writing a letter do such a thing
and I have to say I don’t blame you you
see I did not understand its impact
either that is until October the 7th
1997 that’s the day my father Robert
Gray Davis passed away after years of
illness that included a kidney
transplant and the amputation of an arm
and a leg to diabetes he simply fell
asleep and did not wake up I still
remember the shrieking phone call I got
from my mother as my father lay
motionless beside her
it was and still is the worst day of my
life but from that pain was born a
legacy you see my father had a mission
and that mission was simple he wanted to
write letters letters to the people
places and things in his life that
mattered so with the one hand he had
left he wrote 26 letters 26 letters from
the heart but it wasn’t just the simple
act of a writing that meant so much it
was the deep impact those letters had on
their recipients and in turn the
cathartic experience my father felt in
writing them three days after I got that
phone call from my mother I stood in a
cemetery with my brothers and I handed
out some of those letters to their
intended recipients I still remember the
look of peace and the look of love as
they opened the envelope read the words
and then saw my father’s name I want you
to think for a moment about someone in
your life
someone who’s influenced you perhaps
touched you maybe it was a family member
or friend a coach or a colleague maybe
even a complete stranger who performed
an uncommon act of kindness think of
that person hold their image in your
mind imagine what it was about them that
changed you now imagine putting those
thoughts on paper or better yet imagine
this it’s a Friday afternoon it’s been a
long week maybe maybe even a lonely week
and that person walks to the mailbox and
among the junk mail and the bills they
see an envelope and on the upper
left-hand corner they see your name
you know letter writing is an art form
it started with chiseled images on stone
it evolved to the great prose of our
religious texts to Shakespeare to
soldiers at war sending their thoughts
home and yet in today’s society it seems
as if we have devolved to those same
chiseled images only today they’re on
our smartphones isn’t our mission as
humans to evolve not devolve
communication is key to who we are and
yes technology does allow for a great
degree of efficiency in that
communication but it allows for very
little intimacy it is the intimacy of
this communication that can change you
when you write on a piece of paper and
your hand crosses the center point you
engage the left and the right sides of
your brain your thinking critically and
creatively when you hand write a letter
you slow down you contemplate you
reflect this doesn’t happen on the
typewriter as a matter of fact when we
all looked all took typing class and
high schoolers keyboarding classes they
call it now what’s the one thing you
focused on what’s the one thing you were
proud of and probably most graded on
how many words per minute can I type
it’s not the quantity of our words that
matter it’s the quality you see my
father used his words to write 26
letters 26 letters for their intended
recipients but my father’s mission while
simple was larger than that you see my
father viewed those 26 letters as his
memoir in letter form he wanted to share
them with the world I’m happy to say
that 20 years after his death I did just
that by adding content and context
around those letters they are now a
published work of nonfiction a
posthumous co-authoring with my father
and as I talked about this project with
people I get interesting responses
generally the first thing someone says
to me is all letter-writing
that’s a dying art not entirely untrue
but I can tell you this it is not dead
it’s living and breathing alive and well
and some unlikely places
one group that reached out to me about
the project was the New York City letter
writers Society they invited me to New
York City to spend some time and as I
prepared for this trip my friends and
family said to me well what is the New
York City letter writers Society and I
have to admit I had no idea it very well
could have been three crazy old women in
the basement of a Greenwich Village
apartment I had visions of a dark
staircase leading to a dusty library
full of envelopes and encyclopedias but
when I got down to lower Manhattan what
I found was an eclectic diverse group of
20 and 30-somethings there was the
curator from the Metropolitan Museum of
Art the pencil shop owner
in Soho the young graphic artist working
at a co-working space in Midtown and it
was all led by Rhea Abramson an
executive and the fashion industry and
for the next three hours we sat around a
table full of stationery and envelopes
and postcards and postage stamps and we
laughed we told stories and we wrote
letters we wrote letters to the people
and our lives that mattered and as I sat
there with this group overlooking the
Hudson River as the Sun set beyond the
Statue of Liberty I thought here is the
most connected generation in the history
of mankind and yet they feel more
disconnected than ever and they’re using
the art of letter writing to reconnect
and they’re turning the art of letter
writing into a work of art with ink
stamps drawings calligraphy all on the
envelope so that when you open the
mailbox you have a gift in and of itself
before you ever read the first word the
other thing that I found interesting is
that everyone has a letter-writing story
everybody think about it in your life
there was a time in your life maybe it
was your first week of college maybe
that week at summer camp or your first
job or when you got married someone sent
you a letter someone gave you a hand
written note it meant something people
say to me all the time they tell me
stories the young lady said you know my
grandfather wrote to my grandmother
every week when he was in the war I have
all of these letters they’re in a box at
my home I’ve always wanted to do
something with them or the young man
that told me you know when I was a child
my father traveled for business every
week but regardless of where he went he
sent me a postcard or a note on hotel
stationery I still have those some of
them are framed on the wall in my office
I think of my father often when I see
these and I ask them a question
I say do you write letters do send notes
to your child inevitably after a quick
glance at the floor they say no and I
say why if you understand the power of
this process would you not do that they
tell me this they say I don’t have time
I just can’t find the time you know time
time is an interesting concept you see
if you don’t find time time will find
you time found my father and he used his
time to write 26 letters 26 letters the
shaped his life and changed mine and I
thought that’s my letter writing story
and then one day somebody asked me about
the project specifically about my family
my mother they wanted him a picture of
my mother on her wedding day
and I knew I had this picture I just
didn’t know where so one day I go down
into my basement to my unfinished
basement where we keep all this stuff
that we’ve accumulated over time and
there in the corner are the 20 boxes
that my wife told me five years ago I
should have gone through and and so I
get down there and I started looking
through the boxes and there’s the box of
pictures and there’s the picture of my
mother on her wedding day young vibrant
beautiful I pull the picture out I set
it on the floor and as I glanced back
into that box I see an envelope large
manila envelope tattered and torn had
some a Jonah and as I pull it out I see
two words
Ashley’s graduation now I must say at
this point in the story I’m not excited
about that large manila envelope
you see the mid-80s was not the best
fashion period in my life this was a box
of pictures pictures were not at the top
of my list but what I found when I
opened that envelope was every card
every letter every note I received when
I graduated high school 30 years ago now
most of these were simply Hallmark cards
from a third cousin in Mississippi who
sent me $10 because I was Bobby Davis’s
son and I graduated high school but at
the bottom of that envelope was a
business sized letter hen written
addressed to mr. William Van Ashley
Davis postmarked may 19th 1986 it was
from my grandfather mr. Van Davis whom
IRA affectionately referred to as peanut
in this letter my grandfather told me
what he thought of me as a child what he
hoped for me as a man he told me about
the collegiate experience on which I was
about to embark how to pick my friends
and how to put myself in the right
situations and as I tell you this story
now as I tell you this story now I have
chills and as I read that letter for the
first time in 30 years sitting on the
floor of my unfinished basement I cried
I wept thinking of a man my grandfather
that I’ve not seen in 25 years who I’ve
now been reintroduced to because my
father decided to write a series of
letters before he died 20 years ago
that’s the power of a handwritten letter
that’s the emotion that can transcend
generations and last for decades that’s
why I’m so passionate about that right
that’s why I invite you to join me on
this letter-writing journey to the
YouTube can understand that how do they
YouTube membership so the YouTube
perhaps in 15 years 20 perhaps 30 years
from now he will sit on the floor of
your unfinished basement and he will be
so the question that I would leave you
with today is a very simple one to whom
will you
[Applause]
when was the last time you wrote a
letter not a text or tweet where direct
messages was with an emoji not even a
carefully crafted email but an actual
honest-to-god letter one that you set
down with pen and paper and as the words
flowed you told someone you love them or
that you missed them or that you were
sorry if you’re like a lot of people
perhaps it’s been a while but I’m here
to tell you that needs to change
because I believe that the simple act of
handwriting a letter can fundamentally
change who you are as a person
can impact the recipient in immeasurable
ways and if done often enough can change
who we are as a society now you may be
asking yourself how could the simple act
of writing a letter do such a thing
and I have to say I don’t blame you you
see I did not understand its impact
either that is until October the 7th
1997 that’s the day my father Robert
Gray Davis passed away after years of
illness that included a kidney
transplant and the amputation of an arm
and a leg to diabetes he simply fell
asleep and did not wake up I still
remember the shrieking phone call I got
from my mother as my father lay
motionless beside her
it was and still is the worst day of my
life but from that pain was born a
legacy you see my father had a mission
and that mission was simple he wanted to
write letters letters to the people
places and things in his life that
mattered so with the one hand he had
left he wrote 26 letters 26 letters from
the heart but it wasn’t just the simple
act of a writing that meant so much it
was the deep impact those letters had on
their recipients and in turn the
cathartic experience my father felt in
writing them three days after I got that
phone call from my mother I stood in a
cemetery with my brothers and I handed
out some of those letters to their
intended recipients I still remember the
look of peace and the look of love as
they opened the envelope read the words
and then saw my father’s name I want you
to think for a moment about someone in
your life
someone who’s influenced you perhaps
touched you maybe it was a family member
or friend a coach or a colleague maybe
even a complete stranger who performed
an uncommon act of kindness think of
that person hold their image in your
mind imagine what it was about them that
changed you now imagine putting those
thoughts on paper or better yet imagine
this it’s a Friday afternoon it’s been a
long week maybe maybe even a lonely week
and that person walks to the mailbox and
among the junk mail and the bills they
see an envelope and on the upper
left-hand corner they see your name
you know letter writing is an art form
it started with chiseled images on stone
it evolved to the great prose of our
religious texts to Shakespeare to
soldiers at war sending their thoughts
home and yet in today’s society it seems
as if we have devolved to those same
chiseled images only today they’re on
our smartphones isn’t our mission as
humans to evolve not devolve
communication is key to who we are and
yes technology does allow for a great
degree of efficiency in that
communication but it allows for very
little intimacy it is the intimacy of
this communication that can change you
when you write on a piece of paper and
your hand crosses the center point you
engage the left and the right sides of
your brain your thinking critically and
creatively when you hand write a letter
you slow down you contemplate you
reflect this doesn’t happen on the
typewriter as a matter of fact when we
all looked all took typing class and
high schoolers keyboarding classes they
call it now what’s the one thing you
focused on what’s the one thing you were
proud of and probably most graded on
how many words per minute can I type
it’s not the quantity of our words that
matter it’s the quality you see my
father used his words to write 26
letters 26 letters for their intended
recipients but my father’s mission while
simple was larger than that you see my
father viewed those 26 letters as his
memoir in letter form he wanted to share
them with the world I’m happy to say
that 20 years after his death I did just
that by adding content and context
around those letters they are now a
published work of nonfiction a
posthumous co-authoring with my father
and as I talked about this project with
people I get interesting responses
generally the first thing someone says
to me is all letter-writing
that’s a dying art not entirely untrue
but I can tell you this it is not dead
it’s living and breathing alive and well
and some unlikely places
one group that reached out to me about
the project was the New York City letter
writers Society they invited me to New
York City to spend some time and as I
prepared for this trip my friends and
family said to me well what is the New
York City letter writers Society and I
have to admit I had no idea it very well
could have been three crazy old women in
the basement of a Greenwich Village
apartment I had visions of a dark
staircase leading to a dusty library
full of envelopes and encyclopedias but
when I got down to lower Manhattan what
I found was an eclectic diverse group of
20 and 30-somethings there was the
curator from the Metropolitan Museum of
Art the pencil shop owner
in Soho the young graphic artist working
at a co-working space in Midtown and it
was all led by Rhea Abramson an
executive and the fashion industry and
for the next three hours we sat around a
table full of stationery and envelopes
and postcards and postage stamps and we
laughed we told stories and we wrote
letters we wrote letters to the people
and our lives that mattered and as I sat
there with this group overlooking the
Hudson River as the Sun set beyond the
Statue of Liberty I thought here is the
most connected generation in the history
of mankind and yet they feel more
disconnected than ever and they’re using
the art of letter writing to reconnect
and they’re turning the art of letter
writing into a work of art with ink
stamps drawings calligraphy all on the
envelope so that when you open the
mailbox you have a gift in and of itself
before you ever read the first word the
other thing that I found interesting is
that everyone has a letter-writing story
everybody think about it in your life
there was a time in your life maybe it
was your first week of college maybe
that week at summer camp or your first
job or when you got married someone sent
you a letter someone gave you a hand
written note it meant something people
say to me all the time they tell me
stories the young lady said you know my
grandfather wrote to my grandmother
every week when he was in the war I have
all of these letters they’re in a box at
my home I’ve always wanted to do
something with them or the young man
that told me you know when I was a child
my father traveled for business every
week but regardless of where he went he
sent me a postcard or a note on hotel
stationery I still have those some of
them are framed on the wall in my office
I think of my father often when I see
these and I ask them a question
I say do you write letters do send notes
to your child inevitably after a quick
glance at the floor they say no and I
say why if you understand the power of
this process would you not do that they
tell me this they say I don’t have time
I just can’t find the time you know time
time is an interesting concept you see
if you don’t find time time will find
you time found my father and he used his
time to write 26 letters 26 letters the
shaped his life and changed mine and I
thought that’s my letter writing story
and then one day somebody asked me about
the project specifically about my family
my mother they wanted him a picture of
my mother on her wedding day
and I knew I had this picture I just
didn’t know where so one day I go down
into my basement to my unfinished
basement where we keep all this stuff
that we’ve accumulated over time and
there in the corner are the 20 boxes
that my wife told me five years ago I
should have gone through and and so I
get down there and I started looking
through the boxes and there’s the box of
pictures and there’s the picture of my
mother on her wedding day young vibrant
beautiful I pull the picture out I set
it on the floor and as I glanced back
into that box I see an envelope large
manila envelope tattered and torn had
some a Jonah and as I pull it out I see
two words
Ashley’s graduation now I must say at
this point in the story I’m not excited
about that large manila envelope
you see the mid-80s was not the best
fashion period in my life this was a box
of pictures pictures were not at the top
of my list but what I found when I
opened that envelope was every card
every letter every note I received when
I graduated high school 30 years ago now
most of these were simply Hallmark cards
from a third cousin in Mississippi who
sent me $10 because I was Bobby Davis’s
son and I graduated high school but at
the bottom of that envelope was a
business sized letter hen written
addressed to mr. William Van Ashley
Davis postmarked may 19th 1986 it was
from my grandfather mr. Van Davis whom
IRA affectionately referred to as peanut
in this letter my grandfather told me
what he thought of me as a child what he
hoped for me as a man he told me about
the collegiate experience on which I was
about to embark how to pick my friends
and how to put myself in the right
situations and as I tell you this story
now as I tell you this story now I have
chills and as I read that letter for the
first time in 30 years sitting on the
floor of my unfinished basement I cried
I wept thinking of a man my grandfather
that I’ve not seen in 25 years who I’ve
now been reintroduced to because my
father decided to write a series of
letters before he died 20 years ago
that’s the power of a handwritten letter
that’s the emotion that can transcend
generations and last for decades that’s
why I’m so passionate about that right
that’s why I invite you to join me on
this letter-writing journey to the
YouTube can understand that how do they
YouTube membership so the YouTube
perhaps in 15 years 20 perhaps 30 years
from now he will sit on the floor of
your unfinished basement and he will be
so the question that I would leave you
with today is a very simple one to whom
will you
[Applause]
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