Tuesday, January 15, 2013

More Love Letters and a bit of Amelie


A few weeks ago a good friend of mine sent me the TED video below. As I am a huge fan of TED, this is a very nice thing to do for me (in case you were wondering). In this particular video, Hannah Brencher talks about how she started leaving notes throughout New York city a while back. She was depressed at the time and found comfort in writing love letters to strangers. Before she knew it, she started a movement which is now called 'The World Needs More Love Letters', and I just joined them.


For years I have dreamt of doing something similar; organise a dancing flashmob on a train, paint a quote of something I believe in on a city wall. I dreamt of being more like my heroin Amelie Poulain, doing good in the weirdest of ways. But I never quite dared. Hannah's idea however matches me perfectly: it's easy to do unnoticed and I love to write. So I got started last week... I was very nervous writing my first letter and even moreso when leaving it on a table at Starbucks in Amsterdam. After tucking away around ten letters on trains, cafes and inside books the past week, I'm getting the hang of it. The fact that I have already received two responses from very enthusiastic people makes it all the more exciting. Together with a friend, I started a website to collect all comments and make it easier for other people in Holland to join in. The next step now is to start writing letters for people who need them, not only to random strangers. Do let us know if you know of anyone, or if you want to join us! You can reach us at meerlievebrieven (at) gmail.com.

* For people in the US, the team of More Love Letters has everything ready for you to start writing today. Just visit their website and get started.

I just realised that I haven't yet (UNBELIEVABLE) dedicated a blogpost to my favourite (and most viewed) movie: Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain. I watch it once every year, at least. Well, here are two scenes of her doing good in her own funky way. A separate blogpost about this magical tale will follow. It will.

Amelie helps a blind man and shows him her world. I also helped a blind man a few weeks ago at The Hague Central station, which is a complete mess, and tried to make it as funny as I could ("I'm not sure if you appreciate being grabbed by a strange women, but I promise; I mean well!"). It still wasn't quite like this though...

And, one more... Later on in the movie, Amelie paints some quotes from the book, written by her friend Hipolito, on the walls of Paris' streets.

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