by Ryan, age 9
To Ryan and all the 4th-graders at Horace Mann Elementary... you're very welcome!
I was having rough day, but when I came home and found your thank-you cards in the mail, they cheered me up. I have to say...of all the ways the "Spaces" project has changed my life (and there are many) one of the best is the that I now enjoy opening the mailbox again. It's a small but wonderful thing. I remember being younger - much younger - teetering on the edge of a lawn chair so I could reach into my parent's mailbox. Even on the chair I couldn't see inside - I had to reach in blindly - and that only made the whole process more mysterious. Back then there was no difference between the birthday magician who made coins vanish and the mailman who made letters appear; if anything, the mailman was even more impressive because he performed every afternoon. It'll never be quiet the same, but I've got a little bit of that wonder and joy back - if only for a split-second before the lid opens - and for that I thank you.
I started off by reading a little fable I'd written, and then we did a writing exercise. They were excited to discover that when you write a story, ANYTHING can happen. Like having a cow fly up to the moon for a tea party. Or meeting a person who is five million years old, but has never clipped his toe nails (!).
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