“Maybe we are both idiots?” The words were staring back at me from a postcard. The paper was printed in Italy, but it was written on in German—by a guy in Poland, naturally. My friend Robert—aka Multithink—truly lives up to his online alias.
Robert has sent postcards in Italian, German, English, Russian, Vietnamese, Czech, Persian, Japanese, Turkish, and Arabic. I told him what a brilliant idea and tradition that was, and, well, two weeks later, I check my mailbox, and…
Some of Robert’s postcards go to friends. Others to strangers halfway around the world. And whether it’s thinking through his words in another language or merely great effort on his part, he always manages to share a deeply personal message with the recipient.
In my case, Robert decided to discuss ideas. “Do you sometimes ask yourself where good ideas come from? Maybe, they appear from the void. Or you can only think of them in the shower, as the internet would have you believe. I believe good ideas are born when we come together.”
This is, of course, how Robert’s postcard habit was born, too. He wanted to connect with an online friend. His mom, rather, for she sent him good thoughts in a tough time. But she only spoke Italian. So Robert studied, scribbled, and hoped for the best—and his friend’s mom kept his letter for many years.
But it takes more than two people coming together for a good idea to blossom, Robert believes. “If we want crazy good ideas, we need at least one crazy person. Hence the million-dollar question: Who is the crazy one? You or me? Maybe we are both idiots?”
Most of my letters these days come from entities demanding money. Those usually don’t make me laugh out loud. Robert’s postcard, however, very much did. That ironic, innocent question, echoing into eternity—or perhaps it was simply the genius of his initiative.
Write more letters. Think multi. If you’re feeling a little crazy, maybe you’ll even try writing to someone in their own language—but most of all, write the kind of letter you, too, would actually want to receive.