My Dear Mr. Chief Justice

Today I learned that the Chief Justice of the United States is John G. Roberts, Junior. It's probably sad that I had no idea of this fact prior to sitting down to write this post. Also, I really don't know much about the office of Chief Justice in general. And I'm guessing I'm not the only American who could be found lacking in this area.

How does this relate to the 1950's you ask? I was perusing Amy Vanderbilt's Guide to Gracious Living and noticed a huge portion of the book dedicated to the proper etiquette for addressing all sorts of people socially, in government, in the community, and even royalty! In this day and age of email, Twitter, and Iphones, it seems totally crazy that there was once a time (only about 50 years ago!) that people primarily communicated by letter. Obviously, there were telephones also, however, even casual invitations to small social gatherings were communicated by written invitation, so I imagine communication with the higher ups in government were as well.

Which begs the question, is the art of letter writing dead? It makes me wonder. I love to write, but I honestly can't remember the last time I sat down and wrote an actual letter. I'm not including thank you cards or birthday cards here. I'm talking about a "hey, how are you? how are things? things here are great, the family is well, next month we're going to the Catskills" LETTER.

And honestly, who doesn't love getting a letter? I remember when I was a senior in high school and my boyfriend (now my husband) lived 4 hours away at college. We wrote each other letters at least once a month, even though we also talked on the phone multiple times a week. It was so thrilling to go to the mailbox and get a letter from my man. I still have all the letters and cards he ever sent me in a big envelope. What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic. But even as a kid at camp or a freshman in college myself, letters from my parents were always so wonderful to receive. Getting a letter from someone just really shows you they care. Sure, a text or a Facebook post could get the "I'm thinking of you" message across, but a letter takes it to the next level.

I think I'll start writing more letters to people. It will be interesting to see the response I get - I think it could make some people feel awkward because we are so drifting away from anything truly personal in our society. People expect a call every so often or an email update here and there, but a heartfelt letter out of left field really has the potential to bowl someone over. I love it.

Fortunately for Mr. John G. Roberts, Junior, I won't be writing him a letter any time soon. Frankly, I just wouldn't know what to say. I'm sure he's doing a great job, and from what I gather, he's in there for life, so the way I see it, it won't make much difference what I say to him one way or the other. In case any of you are better patriots than I, I will include Ms. Vanderbilt's excerpt on how to address the Chief Justice of the United States:

Letter opening: Sir (business) My dear Mr. Chief Justice (social)
Closing: Very Truly Yours (business) Sincerely Yours (social)
Speaking to: Mr. Chief Justice
Introducing or Referring to: The Chief Justice

Pretty straightforward. And now, in case we should ever meet, the Chief Justice and I, I will be well prepared. For now, I'm off to go ponder who I'll write to first. Until next time, I remain, Very Truly Yours.