Kindness in a Letterbox

Day 187

My boys and I were introduced to a new activity today called letterboxing. It is a hobby that combines hiking and treasure hunting where participants search for hidden letterboxes by following clues that are posted on the internet. Once the box is found they record the finding in their notebook with the help of a rubber stamp that's part of the letterbox. In addition, participants have their own personal stamps which they use to stamp into the letterbox's log book. This is a bare bones explanation really, and I'm sure if any letterboxers out there are reading this they are cringing. If you are interested in more details there are tons of websites, but Atlas Quest is where I'm getting most of my information.

So our friends took us on a hike this glorious, albeit chilly fall day and helped teach us about the ins and outs of the hobby. Apparently, I am sworn to secrecy about the details of what we found and where, but I am allowed to say it was a rubber stamp, an ink pad, and a journal of all the previous finders. In order to protect them from the weather the contents were wrapped in a Ziploc bag, placed in a plastic container, which was wrapped in another Ziploc bag, and it was under a rock somewhere in Rhode Island. No matter how much you beg I will not tell you anything else.

Except this. The ziploc on the outer plastic bag was broken, increasing the risk of water damage to the contents inside. When I got home later in the afternoon I spent a good deal of time (my husband might say too much time) searching the Atlas Quest website to learn about this world I knew nothing about before today. And I found out that it is courteous in this letterboxing community to let the planters of the box (note how I am already working the lingo into my vocabulary) if there are any repairs needed.

Excellent! Daily commitment to kindness meets letterboxing. I then spent even more time trying to figure how exactly you pass on the message to the “planters.” Many clicks later I had the information I needed and details of the needed box upkeep were sent. My kind deed was done for the day, freeing up more time in the day researching what might become my new addiction.