A doctor, Rafael Campo, and three of his students discuss the importance of poetry to their work. I'm taken by the doctor's words

"To me the patient's voice, the stories they have to tell are absolutely central to the work of healing. ... The poetry of the encounter helps me to think even more effectively and more thoughtfully really about that. I feel like listening to that story and really attuning my ear to the patients voice helps me listen to their heart more clearly ."

I kept a vigil for the mail. I would sit in the bay window of our living room, reading a book and keeping an ear out for the engine of the mail carrier’s jeep. Or I would hurry home from school, eager to see if any blue missives waited for me at command central, our dining room table.

But I worry about the loss of the physical manifestation of this correspondence. I know I could print my favorites, but printed typescript simply does not convey the sense of a person the way my decades-old letters did: coffee stains, for instance, or the small curve of my grandmother’s script. And e-mails are just too easy to pop off and can be so abrupt. I remember the rambling letters I once exchanged with friends; sometimes it took several drafts to get something just right. The ritual of collecting the mail meant something, too, as did my sense that, in holding a letter, I was holding the letter writer.

The most essential part of @paulsalopek 's reporting toolkit is a pen and notebook. You don't need high-tech tools to be a journalist.

— Out of Eden (@outofedenwalk) December 24, 2013

When was the last time you wrote in cursive, other than a hastily scrawled signature on a receipt? For most of us, it’s not an everyday occurrence. But a couple of months ago, designer Cristina Vanko decided to change that: After discovering one of her dad’s old fountain pens and beginning to practice a little calligraphy, she spent a week writing every text message on her phone by hand.

Here's one designer whose belief in cursive script led her to handwrite all her text messages for a while. Of handwriting, she says

There are so many benefits lost when you replace the hand with the key,” she says, listing everything from hand-eye coordination to the ability for kids to recognize letter forms. “During handwriting, both sides of the brain are in sync and make connections that stimulate language, learning, and fluency in a more effective way.

NPR shared a story this morning of the way the Brazilian post office makes Christmas wishes come true for children. I think it's cool that the post office insists on handwritten letters.