I found this in some old records. Wouldn’t it be nice if a letter “bridge of love” could bring our country closer together today and heal all the division today.
THE BRIDGE
A. H. Allbright
Acting Postmaster
September 24, 1940
At first there was no bridge.
On either side of the wide river people lived.
Those on the far side and those on the near didn’t know each other.
They had no way to trade happiness or help of friendship. Each was the poorer because no highway lay between them.
But a bridge builder came. Across the river, reaching to the far shore, he made a bridge – a think of substance, solid and lasting. And at once the people on the far side and those in the near became one people.
Across the bridge flowed an exchange of all the good things that each possessed. Over the bridge moved friendship, understanding, affection and mutual regard.
You can build a bridge, too.
Somewhere is a friend of yours who wonders about you. Across the river of distance is a family-member once close to you. Somewhere is one who remembers you. Somewhere someone is lonely and wants your understanding, or someone is happy and wants to share happiness with you.
Build a bridge to them.
Its so easy. A letter is the wide bridge that carries you to them. Your letter shares your heart with that distant friend; it brings a comfort and a joy to that absent relative; it’s the bridge that carries consolation to those who need it, or courage and light to those awaiting a helping word; to the aged it brings a warm glow of happy remembrance, to the youngsters a merry laugh of sheer happiness; it’s the pathway along which your personality races to enrich the lives of those you love.
Build, then, a letter bridge to a father or mother awaiting patiently some news of their grown boys and girls. Build a letter bridge to one who is lonely in a strange city; to that youngster in camp or college; to that one on whom illness or bereavement has fallen; to those whose eyes are lit with new happiness and who want to pass some of it back to you – or even to someone who doesn’t expect to hear from you, but who will receive such word with a warm and grateful thought of the writer.
Send across your bridge a smile of happiness, a word of cheer, a bit of homey chat. Remember that the bridge runs two ways. Back across it will come and multiplied all that you sent.
A letter is such a heartfelt thing. It is a part of you, speaking for you, acting for you – the most personal and most charming way to say thank you, to wish God-speed, to give welcome, to congratulate, or (and here is the very essence of a letter) to create a tie that is lovely and enduring.
Don’t put off writing because you “can’t think of what to say,” Those to whom you write will see far more beauty in your words than ever you thought they had. Don’t put off writing because you don’t think it’s important. Every letter that was ever written was important to the person who recived it.
SOMEONE’S WAITING FOR YOUR LETTERS, WRITE TODAY TO THOSE AWAY
