How people stay connected before the invention of text messaging? That makes it easy to send a note to a friend. And before there were telephones in every home that could1you immediately with a loved one, there were letters. Sure, you might 2to wait a few days or weeks for the postman to 3 it, but the special feeling it contained made it worth the 4. Although a letter offers no 5 joy, handwritten correspondence (通信) was always highly 6 and favored. A letter could be read 7 so that one could enjoy that special moment over and over again.
In the face of worry over the coronavirus pandemic and all the 8 it has placed on New Yorkers, a Brooklyn — based performance artist and English professor Brandon Woolf came up with the idea of reviving (复兴) the letter writing9 as a means to reach out and 10 one another.
Knowing that people have lost loved ones, jobs and businesses, and 11 simple pleasures like hugs from a friend, Woolf began to think about how to help people make 12 connections.
His 13 was to take a page from history. "When interpersonal connection is 14during the hard times, what are other ways where we can be 15?" Woolf wondered. "What is a better experience than 16 a piece of mail in your mailbox from somebody you didn't expect to hear from？"
Using a portable 17 and seated on a folding chair alongside a mailbox, he put a sign says, "Free Letters for Friends Feeling Blue." Woolf spent several hours, a few days a week for four weeks, typing letters for his Park Slope, Brooklyn 18.
The 37-year-old New York University teacher called his street 19 "The Console"—short for consolation(慰问). He 20 the neighbors and those hearing from them could feel the warmth.
