THE SJ CHILDS SHOW
Episode 279-The Transformative Power of Gratitude: Carew Papritz's Journey from Hollywood to Heartfelt Connections
What if a simple thank you letter could change your life? Join us as we sit down with the award-winning author and filmmaker Carew Papritz to explore his remarkable journey from Hollywood's elite to the cowboy life in southern Arizona. Discover how Carew's diverse experiences with icons like Madonna and Marlon Brando have shaped his belief in the power of curiosity, kindness, and gratitude. From promoting literacy with National Thank You Letter Day to setting a Guinness World Record, Carew's initiatives are a testament to how small acts of kindness can ripple through communities and create lasting connections.
We also dive into the transformative power of children's literature and the importance of engaging young minds with creative book readings. Carew's "I Love to Read" video series has captivated millions of young viewers by blending literature with imaginative settings like horseback rides and iconic landmarks. These compelling stories not only make reading an exciting adventure but also foster empathy, imagination, and a lifelong love for books in children. By contrasting the rich narratives found in traditional books with the often superficial content of social media, we highlight the enduring value of books in a child's development.
Lastly, we uncover the profound impact of handwritten thank you letters, featuring heartfelt anecdotes and practical advice for parents. Learn about the world's largest handwritten thank you letter project involving hundreds of school children and how it led to the creation of National Thank You Letter Day. Discover simple tips for encouraging letter writing at home, and hear touching stories that illustrate the powerful connections forged through gratitude. This episode is a heartwarming reminder of the joy and community that can be built through small, thoughtful gestures.
What if a simple thank you letter could change your life? Join us as we sit down with the award-winning author and filmmaker Carew Papritz to explore his remarkable journey from Hollywood's elite to the cowboy life in southern Arizona. Discover how Carew's diverse experiences with icons like Madonna and Marlon Brando have shaped his belief in the power of curiosity, kindness, and gratitude. From promoting literacy with National Thank You Letter Day to setting a Guinness World Record, Carew's initiatives are a testament to how small acts of kindness can ripple through communities and create lasting connections.
We also dive into the transformative power of children's literature and the importance of engaging young minds with creative book readings. Carew's "I Love to Read" video series has captivated millions of young viewers by blending literature with imaginative settings like horseback rides and iconic landmarks. These compelling stories not only make reading an exciting adventure but also foster empathy, imagination, and a lifelong love for books in children. By contrasting the rich narratives found in traditional books with the often superficial content of social media, we highlight the enduring value of books in a child's development.
Lastly, we uncover the profound impact of handwritten thank you letters, featuring heartfelt anecdotes and practical advice for parents. Learn about the world's largest handwritten thank you letter project involving hundreds of school children and how it led to the creation of National Thank You Letter Day. Discover simple tips for encouraging letter writing at home, and hear touching stories that illustrate the powerful connections forged through gratitude. This episode is a heartwarming reminder of the joy and community that can be built through small, thoughtful gestures.
Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding. Enjoy the show. Hi and welcome to the SG Child Show. Today I have Kuru Papritz. Did I pronounce that correctly? We're good. You know how is it pronounced, so that I know correctly how to say it my accent on the first Papritz. Papritz, papritz. Okay, wonderful, we got Carew.
Speaker 2:We're all we're. We're halfway there.
Speaker 1:I love it. And where was the where? What kind of name is that? So it's so interesting.
Speaker 2:It's a they're all crews and old Welsh name. And then Papritz is the old German name. It's a mutt name, but it's what you grow up with.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's exciting. I'm Irish and I think, basque. So yeah, interesting Mediterranean European people, right? Yeah, oh, I love it. Well, thank you so much for sharing your time with us today and talking about your exciting adventures, which we'll get to so you can explain a little bit more about that, but before that, just tell us a little bit about yourself, introduce yourself and what brought you here today.
Speaker 2:Well, my name is Karu Papritz. As per the introduction, I'm an award-winning author of this lovely book called the Legacy Letters. It's won a number of national awards, which is really great for any author. I've been blessed to have been able to do a myriad of book signings and all over things all over the world with this book. I'm also a filmmaker.
Speaker 2:I worked in the film industry for many years, got out of that and, as a result, I worked in the film industry for many years, got out of that and, as a result, I could take my filmmaking abilities and help with the literacy world and getting kids to read and getting excited about it. Kids involved in local, regional and national community projects that get them involved in and get them back involved in the community again with real-time projects that make them understand how important community is at all levels, and so that's, and as a result of that and so that's, and, and as a result of that, we created a thing called National Thank you Letter Day, which is then we create the world's largest thank you letter, which got us a Guinness World Record which got us on the Kelly Clarkson show.
Speaker 1:So there's all these just myriad of things to keep me active and useful. I think that the mind is the best place to do that. I mean, of course, staying healthy in your body is fantastic, but from the advice of my 96 year old grandfather, who passed last year like he was reading and doing, you know, college um, it's kind of little course studies when he was 92. He did not ever stop. He just kept that brain and he always told me you know like you got to keep learning, got to keep.
Speaker 2:One hundred percent, sarah, totally agree with you. Yeah, and I guess with that too, with that added caveat, with your wonderful show and the things that you promote, is the idea of not just practicing gratitude but doing it in all forms, whatever they may be. So that combination, I guess, of being curious and kind really is the fountain of youth.
Speaker 1:Oh, isn't that the truth? I I love that. You said that. Curiosity and kindness, I think those are my two favorite words. I love that so much. Um that you know, when you started on this journey, um, what did that stage of your life look like, how, what were you going through and kind of decided to take this route?
Speaker 2:So you mean the gratitude, or just the general, or just the how?
Speaker 1:about the, the, the letter, the book of about?
Speaker 2:well, that's a really that's an interesting story because I probably I've said this so many times but if you're going to have a midlife crisis, have it early. So I decided to have mine early and I was actually working in the film industry. I had gone to UCLA film school and got out and found myself in all aspects of the film industry, from everything from working on low budget horrors to commercials to actually music videos. Yes, there were music videos back in the day. That shows how young I am. I worked with madonna and I worked with the stones. I worked with marlon brando, I work with john depp I can drop names because it's so much fun now after so many years away from that. And then I worked on feature films.
Speaker 2:I got into the the big leagues and um got my union card and I began to sort of see the writing on the wall. There was a lot of unhappy people making a lot of money and I was going, whoa, what is this combination? This doesn't seem to be working for me and for a kid that was brought up in the Northwest and the mountains and the outdoors. I was beginning to sort of see the writing on the wall like gosh, am I going to put this part of my life the next 20, 25, 30 years in a place where there was a lot of unhappy people. I said, eh, I don't know. So the long and short of it is is I ended up doing what I call a drive about you know how the Australian Aborigines do a walkabout while I drove around and I and I didn't know what I was looking for. It was one of those things where I sort of knew I was going to find it once I was there. But it's one of those things where you just throw yourself into the universe and you say, please catch me at some point. And it did. I ended up working.
Speaker 2:Most interestingly enough, I sort of came back to my roots. My grand folks had a small ranch and I had done some cowboy type of stuff when I was younger. And here I was. I ended up becoming a cowboy, a working cowboy, on a ranch in southern Arizona, in this small town, very, very desolate, and it was there that I picked up the pen again.
Speaker 2:I had written several books in my younger years and it became a walled and pawned time period of my life, a reflective period, and for the next five years I worked on the legacy letters and for your listeners, the basic premise is this is a series of fictional letters written by this father to his kids that he would never live to see, and the letters become their practical, moral and spiritual guidebook for the rest of their life. And they grow up with these letters and decide they want to give 40 of the over 200 letters to the world, and so that is in this. Here we go, go for all. You can see there it is beautiful, um and um, and it got out into the world and again, very, very fortunate that it. It has won the accolades that it has.
Speaker 2:But I think that it the reason for that is it came from a place, a very naked place, because here you are revealing who you are inside these letters, as he's revealing himself to his kids about all aspects of life, and so I think that resonated with people as we came out in these book signings and then beyond that. So that's sort of the genesis of the start of all these other things. And here it was, this going out on this ranch, and it's where I met my wife. She came out on a horseback pack trip and I wrangled her and all this good stuff. So, yeah, it's a lovely story and a lovely change, and I guess that's one of those things you can say, guys, you can turn 90 degrees and go down another street and all of a sudden, you know, a whole new part of your life opens up.
Speaker 1:You're never too old to go in a new direction. You know change things. People get so complacent and it's so sad to see especially those you love who don't believe that there's more that they could discover and uncover about themselves and the world and everything around them. The community and I love the community pieces this togetherness when you can bring people with the same passion for whatever purpose it might be, and really see, especially with children.
Speaker 1:I watched the video where they let the balloons in the air on your reels and I was just like you know, just smiling from ear to ear and just like, makes me like so happy. And yeah, it's those types of things that those are memories, core memories that these children will have, that will help them make decisions in the future of you know, like basing those things off, those core memories of feeling so good and grateful for the situation that they're giving gratitude in. I just love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree, and especially with kids, because of the honesty, because of the authenticity you know they're bringing to the game.
Speaker 2:And that's why I get such a kick out of working with them, because, no matter what it is, they're always game. It's like, oh, he's doing this, again, he's doing this. Yeah, what do you want to do it? Yeah, let's do it. I mean just, you know, time and time again, and that type of energy is so infectious, it's so it just begets itself and begets itself, and then you just want more of it.
Speaker 1:I guess that's. There's a little bit of addicted to that, that, that that great kid energy and uh, and it inspires me every single day. And you know, I think, as an author, like being I'm also, um, an author and and I, when you go to the classrooms and things and they're so excited to meet an author, you're like this mini celebrity in their school, even though you might just be a mom or it might, you know just, and you just feel like so amazed at their amazement at you. And it really goes to show like they want good role models. They want exciting, happy people in their lives to look up to, to, to tell, to show them what the next step could be. Um, it's so exciting when that happens. I just love to see their faces when you, you know, when you're there and they, they have such great questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they really do. They really do. And I saw your books, your lovely kids books and and for all of you out there, go check them out, folks, because they're really, they're bright and they're colorful and they're engaging, they're just. Anybody who inspires kids in that way, especially through books, especially if you can get them to kids to read, which is one of the core parts of becoming educated in life, is this primary time to learn how to educate oneself. And the joy of reading and I say the joy, because there's a lot of not joy in reading, and that's what I'm trying to bring back is like, guys, don't kill it in school, don't kill it with reading all these other books, give them the choice of like, like this is actually enjoyable.
Speaker 1:And then, from there on out, oh my, it, just it's incredible you know once we can hopefully I wish that you know literally government would be listening to this just say oh my, we need to make kids' interests the most important thing for them, you know, and kind of thing, cause I there's, there's such a power in the kids, empowerment of their own interests, and how curiosity and how much fuel you can give them with those things, and I think that it can be better fostered in so many areas. But of course, you know, with children's books it's easy to to engage them with the bright pictures and the poems and the things that are easier, you know, for them to kind of catch on to. But then we get into more. You know your style, which is a little bit more maybe not, I wouldn't say drama, romance and maybe drama possibly right.
Speaker 1:Style Sure, there's drama, entertainment, value, right brings this sense of which I don't know if my kid guilty, don't know if my kids really have the sense of this, because their readings a lot different than mine but that empathy or that wanting to understand or getting a sense of how somebody else is dealing with a situation and how they're going through it, and I think today it's so that gets so lost in like the short video form things of how you can express your you know people can express these emotions in books differently and you go through the whole myriad of the expression of the beginning, the middle and then the end and how it, kind of you know, plays out. And I think that that's lost a little bit today and it gives our kiddos a little disadvantage to not gain that perception.
Speaker 2:Yeah, boy, it's just. While you're saying all that, there's this whole sort of Rolodex of things and my ideas that are going through my head relative to that, and one of them is, of course, teaching yourself how to imagine. And what the social media does that I don't think people truly understand is that it's saying here's the narrative, here's the story, and you're being force-fed the story and it doesn't have any other way to go except for the way you see it. That's how media works.
Speaker 2:But a book is entirely different because, of course, you're creating the world inside your head and it's teaching you that the world has options, as opposed to the dogma of a single vision, which is fine, I mean, that has its place in the world. But if you have a full meal of that, then that's all you're getting. And so what you're being taught in a book that people are sort of forgetting much in the same way that writing thank you letters and we'll talk about that and the importance of that and the importance of handwriting and things like that is the engagement with yourself, the engagement with talking to yourself and listening to yourself and then bringing that out into the world, and so I think that's part of the fundamental thing that's being lost and it's tough to say, because I'll tell you what the silver spoon. And let's do that. There's my teaspoon there. Whoop, good, there, we got the silver spoon.
Speaker 2:You're wagging for it. Oh, look at it. Look at it, there's a silver spoon. That's much more exciting than guess what a book. And people go oh my gosh, it looks like work. And so we? That's part of what I feel my job is is to get kids back to the idea, and I've tried to do it in sort of a sneaky way with these. I love to read videos and I hope you had a chance to take a look at some of them, because that's that's been fun getting kids back on the, on the horse, so to speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. You know it's so important to kind of give them direction. You know you point them in the right direction and say, okay, let me see where you're going to go with that and to watch them come up with the you know the things that are important to them, the things that make the world look special to them. It's so different sometimes than we would expect. You know, even with our own kids. You know own kids like what did you think about this? And they will give some completely different answer and I was like, well, that's a whole other perspective that I didn't even perceive. And now, thank you, yeah, yeah, oh, go ahead, I'm sorry After you, oh, no, no, you go, You're good.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, you go. You're good. No, no, no, I was well. So back to this.
Speaker 2:I love to read series. That I started, and the reason I started it was I was trying to come up with a way to sort of lead them down the garden path with YouTube videos, cause that's all they want. Oh, youtube, youtube, okay, okay. What if we did something with an author doing something in a YouTube video that was completely different than anything they've seen before? So what I would do, the first one I ever did is you take the book like this and I'm on the back of a horse. It's the horse I used to cowboy. Off of His name was Boots, big, old, tall son of a gun. And I said, all right, I I gotta bring the book back here and I would say turn the pages as the camera's rolling. You know what I love to read and I love to ride. And I spur the horse and off we go and the horse farted. I mean the biggest fart on the camera you could imagine. I was like, seriously, are you kidding me? Oh my gosh. So I said, all right, let's do another take. Did the second take, even a bigger, like the horse knew he was on camera, right. Third time it was big, it was long, it was dramatic, the fart just. And as I galloped off it was like, oh, this is ridiculous, wait a second, wait a second. Kids will flip over this. This thing will go viral. Well, I don't know viral, I don't know, 20,000 or 30,000 views, whatever, but they flipped over it and they thought it was hilarious. So I've done these.
Speaker 2:I love to read videos, not only on horseback. I've done them while on a rafting trip. I've done them in front of the Statue of Liberty. I've done them on glaciers while playing putt-putt, you name it. I've done all these things. Okay, so you go. Why? Why do you do this? Because teachers and educators and parents can get their little primer sheet out and go.
Speaker 2:Why is this guy doing this? Well, he's an author. Is this what authors do? That's what this author did. Now, all of a sudden, you're starting to beg the question, right, and it starts to. You start to pull on the sweater and the sweater unravels and it becomes a whole new sweater. And it's remarkable because they're like well, that's cool, but where's that at? How does he?
Speaker 2:And we've generated discussion all over the idea of a book and being outside, and that's the other thing, it's always outside, because I love being outdoors. So we've got, and then we've got now 2 million plus views, 10,000 subscribers. Hey, I've got to tell you something really funny. We did one in Chicago this last year. For those of you who don't know, there's a famous sculpture there called the Bean. It's a huge, gigantic reflective sculpture and it's renowned and you'll see it with every tourist thing. You look up Chicago, there it is.
Speaker 2:So my son and my wife are my directors and cinematographers, so they pull out the book and they go oh, it's a time to do it. I love to read, we do it. I love to read in Chicago and I love to be there in front of the bean and we're talking and this group of teenage boys, they're walking behind me and I thought, oh, they're going to photobomb me or something. But. And I thought, oh, they're going to photo bomb me or something. But they don't, they just walk behind like they're just sort of being goofy but they're not doing anything stupid to interrupt the deal. And at the end of the little short intro that I do, I told my son keep rolling, keep rolling. So he does, and the guys come over to me. We caught it and they go well, what are you doing? Who are you? I'm an author, an author. What have you written? Okay, well, what's this all about? He says I've got a youtube series because I love to read, and he goes really he says, yeah, how many subscribers do you have?
Speaker 2:like you're laying down the gauntlet. I go, oh, I don't know, nine, ten thousand. The kid goes, that's legit. And he says you've got 15 more subscribers now. And I thought there it is, that's legit, there it is. That's all I need. Now I've been legitimized. Why? Because I'm on youtube in their world, like that's cool. I want to know more, all right I'll take it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so fantastic. I love that. I love that you got that interaction and got to um that's legit piece of that. Yeah, right, right. You're like I'm not proof. Oh my gosh that's all it took.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, I'm in. Let's talk about the thank you letters, cause I you know, that's something I think is so special and, yeah, I think we need reminders in our life of things that we know are good. Then we forget and get on with it or do things in our lives. So I love that we're going to talk about this, cause I think it'll be a good reminder for me of that. You know, this importance of this, yeah, so thank you letters.
Speaker 2:So this started out, of course, in writing, the legacy letters. These are letters from his father to his kids, and I began to understand the importance of letters, the immediacy and one of the most fascinating things that that came about from the writing of the book was the power of letters. Now, cause, oh yeah, what's the power of letters? No, it's, it's more than that. When you write a letter, you're doing more than just an email or text, which is so instantaneous, which is so easy to do. It takes time to write a letter and the writing of a letter is actually putting into pen, putting into the paper with pen, the time you are giving to somebody else, and that is what people receive when they receive a letter and or a thank you letter or a love letter. They're receiving the time, you're giving them the gift of your time, and they everyone understands that it's so, it's so amazing. And you're giving and if you and if you write it out, even though it's chicken scratch and people like I can't write anymore guess what you will hold onto that letter that thank you, whatever it may be for the rest of your life, because no one A does it anymore and B it's the humanity of that person, the personality. It's real. It's as real as you get to holding a piece of that person next, to being there. I mean you can do videos and all that, but there's something about that document. It's a document, right. I mean, think about that. We don't even talk about that in terms of that.
Speaker 2:So how did this all come about? I was teaching a cursive writing course at our son's elementary school. And back to the legacy letters. I was reading from it and some lines, and there's a very simple letter from how to Say Please and Thank you. Oh God, what's that all about? Well, I wrote some of the lines on the board and all of a sudden, this idea popped in my head. Because why? Because the kids are like, oh, falling asleep. Yeah, I know, it's cursive, I know and I'm trying to make it exciting, but there's a little bit of work involved. And I said, hey, what do you guys think about creating the world's largest handwritten thank you letter and making it the size of a football field? And they're like oh, mr Pramper it's great.
Speaker 2:Oh, we love it. Oh my gosh. And I was like, yeah, what did I just say? Oh my gosh, and these kids are used to me coming up with these wild ideas and they're on board, but this one, I was like holy mackerel. Well, guess what? We did it? We created the world's largest handwritten thank you letter the size of a high school basketball gym. It took over 30 rolls of butcher paper. I think it took 50 pizzas. It took like 1,300 cookies, because this is fuel, of course. We had rolls of tape, like 117 rolls. We literally put it together, we wrote out the letter and and an interesting part of that I tried to write this letter. I tried. Oh, I'm an author, I'm special, I can write, I can do it, I can write it.
Speaker 2:So I got my inner kid, my inner fourth grader, I wrote it as, like this is a piece of garbage. This is a guy trying to write a you know thank you letter, pretending like no, no. So I go back to him and say, guys, this is what I want you to do. I want you to write what you're thankful for. It doesn't. I don't care what it is. You can be thankful for your parents, you think. Whatever it is, just come back and write a whole bunch.
Speaker 2:They came back right, we took, we took the best lines and put them in this letter and that's what you read on there. So we did this letter and then, all of a sudden, this other idea popped out. Well, my gosh, we're going to do this. Then what are we going to do with it? Well, we created national thank you letter day. It's on it's on nove 14th, right in the middle of the month of thanks. And so that was how we started National Thank you Letter with the world's largest handwritten thank you letter. All 600 kids at the school signed it, the teachers, the administrative people from the community. So it was this big folder, all and Sarah.
Speaker 2:The biggest question people ask is well, what do you do with the world's largest Thank you letter? You have to send it. Next year. We created the world's largest envelope, world's largest stamp. Postmaster came, stamped it, we put it through the mail system, sent it to our sister school. I'm going to tell you, taking the world's largest letter and all that, it is a paper burrito, 25 feet long, three feet high. It took 20 plus kids to carry it out of their shoulders. Go to nationalthankyouletterdaycom. You can check it out. And we got the Guinness World Record for it and as a result, it got on the Kelly Clarkson Show.
Speaker 2:She loves letter writing and the the postmaster gave to all our kids. Um, she purchased herself 600 on uh postcards for the kids to write thank you notes to whomever they wanted. And I received one. My wife and I received one from our son and I was like, oh my gosh, there it was the thank you note and he said something to the effect that, dear mom, papa, thank you for. Something like thank you for letting me be in this family. I mean, yeah, you were born into it, so, okay, I love what we do, so on and so forth. And I wish this letter, I wish this card was bigger so I could write more love, and then his name and it was like wow, and I mean I'm going to carry that to my dying day. It's like and there it is, a document that says, at the moment, this true feeling of gratitude.
Speaker 2:And ever since I think we're into our ninth year of doing this and trying to get the word out in a big way of the importance of writing thank you letters, one year we did it to our local, not just first responders, but people in our community like the garbage men and the people at the checkout stands and doctors, and so they came to the school and picked up these letters that the kids wrote. So once again, this sort of involving the kids and seeing what it's like. And I got one last thing, sarah when I go down in the grocery store in our town and one day this kid he's coming by and he looks up and he waves to me. He goes hey, mr Big Letter, how are you? He goes to his mom. That's the guy. That's the Big Letter guy. That's the guy.
Speaker 2:I'm putting it on my gravestone I'm the.
Speaker 1:Big Letter guy. Come on, what is that the.
Speaker 1:Big Letter guy. Yeah, bring it. No, I love it so much, absolutely. That's so special. I was just like my creative mind was going the whole time I was visiting myself there. It was all just fantastic. And you know, that is the magic of storytelling, isn't? It Is when you can engage any listener to want to know more, be excited about the information they're getting you know, and then further that with, with following up, of course, and with that, where can we go to find all of these wonderful things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and again. For me, with the kids, it's this not only were they part of something exceptional at a moment in time, but it's like, well, that was fun, oh my gosh, it's fun to be nice, it's fun to have gratitude, it's fun to and even writing a thank you letter. Wow, okay, we can write thank you letters. And, boy, if you start with that good feeling right from the genesis, of who they are as kids, you know, and the other part of it too, sarah, is that, I think, is critical, because people say, oh, I tried to do thank you letters with my kids and I go, you got to walk your talk, you got to sit down and say, hey, we're going to write a thank you letter, because if it's Christmas, that's always a good reason, you know, or whatever the case may be. Or I'm sitting down to write a thank you letter to grandma for coming over, or someone who brought a pot I don't know, I'm just making up stuff off the top of my head. Someone, the veterinarian that took care of our dog, let's write a thank you letter. Or are you going to write one, mom? Are you going to write one dad, dads, come on, everyone's on board. We all got to walk our talk on this, so show them it doesn't have to be this belabored.
Speaker 2:You know, horrific thing, where, oh my God, I'm going to sit down and write a thank you, no, no, no. Watch how quickly it is, watch how quick it is. No, no, no, no. You write this, you write this. Thank you so much. They're going to love it and then you can deliver it in person, but it's really, really cool to get it gift-wrapped in an envelope and a stamp. Yeah, it takes a bit of work, but guess what effort it goes. More than ever, more than ever. They understand that effort and when they receive it, they're like, they're shocked, they're shocked, and it makes an impact on people, right? Yeah, the impact of gratitude, wow a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. It can go so far. You know, I had a memory popped in my mind of a time where I had gone to visit my dad and I left a bunch of little sticky notes thank you, sticky notes and things in hidden places all over the house so that we know when I was gone. He'd go back and find all these little notes that you know, that is so cool I know, and he still has them up like years, years and years later. So I'm so thankful for that. Wow, what a neat memory to get a little download.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, but so simple, right? Such a simple, simple act, and I think that's what people forget, like you don't have to do this over-the-top social media performance act. It is that simple and people recognize the power of that simple act. I mean it really is. And, again, it's taking the effort.
Speaker 2:For years I did a Valentine's Day series of shows or interviews on how to write the perfect Valentine's Day letter, and the biggest one was you know the simplicity of doing it, of going to your printer, grabbing a piece of white paper, sitting down saying dear, and then write three things that's this your partner, your spouse, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, whomever does for you throughout the day, throughout the the week, throughout the year. That are just simple acts of love. They can be like oh honey, I like the way you change the oil, read to the kids at night, or you know the way you take care of the plants, or you I don't know it could be any number there's snow, plow the yard or put up the christmas tree decorations. You know it could be anything you know like that. And then you, you know, you sign it, love, and then that you put in the gift wrapping of the envelope and you and you give it to somebody, and and people are always stunned. So I was.
Speaker 2:I was doing it once again back up at school with our lovely, uh inspirational kids, telling them about this whole thing. Cause I just got off doing a talking about these love letters and I said, hey, what if we? I said girls in class, how many of you would like to receive a love text, a romance text, a romance email I shouldn't even say email, cause then that dates myself or a love letter on paper. And I said, how many you like to receive a text, you know the love letter.
Speaker 2:All of their hands went up and then I was like and then I went to the boys and I did the same and they, of course now that they're following like, oh, yeah, well, I'll send a little bit comes to the end of class and I say, hey, what? Um, you guys have any questions about any of this stuff? And this kid in the back pipes uh, hey, mr Pappers, when can we start learning how to write these love letters? The kid got it. He saw the girls with their hands up. He's like I'm on this, that I'm on this gravy trail.
Speaker 1:I'm on this my end. I'm on this gravy trail.
Speaker 2:I'm on this love train. Wow, caught on Like he saw Hands up Step Equals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm on board there it is I love that, I love that, yeah, and so you know what we did last year and I think, oh, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. I'm sorry, oh no, we have a little delay. I was just tell me. Tell me what you did last year. This is exciting, no, no.
Speaker 2:Because I love the idea of you're putting the post-its up around the house and the thing. It's just such a beautiful idea Somewhat. Similarly, we did something last year where I said, hey, why don't we write thank you letters to people in our lives that we haven't seen in forever, that were mentors, that did something special for us? There were several people in my life. One was the bookmobile lady that came by and brought books to me. I haven't tracked her down yet. I don't even know if she's still alive. And the other one was the gal at the ranch that hired me. She owned the ranch and and she passed away last year out there. Think about those people in your life, so powerful, if they receive this letter out of the blue that said you know, thank you for turning me on to X, y or Z, thank you for making me realize, whatever my life, one simple act Doesn't have to be big. Long Could be one page. You get it to them, you will blow them away.
Speaker 1:They'll be moved to the end of the end of days yeah, what I was going to say was that the, in the simplicity of, just like you said, it doesn't have to be. You know this long double page, double space. You know you just write it, write things from your heart, write things, um, people see and and know honesty and authenticity and they crave that.
Speaker 1:I think that they really do and they really oh so well put yeah, and, and I think that being a part of something like that is so magical for adults and especially for children. So bravo for all of your creative, amazing work you're doing with the universe of people.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Sarah. I get as good as I get, you know, and that's, I think that's the best part of it, especially with the kids, you know, they just they eat it up and I mean that's, that's not a hard lift at all to do that because of of what? Of what they get and what they bring back. Oh, I mean, are you kidding Mr Big letter?
Speaker 1:I'm there, right, so what's up next? What are what's up next? What do we get to see?
Speaker 2:oh, wow, let's see what's coming up next. Oh, we're trying to see about bringing the big letter to washington dc and putting it on the national wall wall, the national mall, for national thank you letter day. So we're in that, we're trying to do that because I really, um, I would love, love, love, love to get this out and even bigger. I mean, kelly Clarkson was wonderful, but we need to bring it out every year because I think if it gets into schools, it gets into parents and they see, hey, this is a lovely way in the month of thanks. You know, we're actually what we're going to start doing is calling it National Thank you Letter Month, as opposed to just the day, because you get day, it's here and gone. But if we're doing it during thanksgiving, then we can incorporate veterans day, send a letter to your vets, you know, um, when family members come over for thanksgiving, we can do this.
Speaker 2:So it's very practical things about it and the more we take the thank you letter out of the, it's old fashioned idea and make it, it's a timeless idea. It is a as powerful as please and as thankful as thank as thank you in our lives and it doesn't require a whole heck of a lot to pull off. But what it does is it reconnects us in our shared love of kindness, our shared love of gratitude, our shared love of civility. And these are some of the central tenets of writing a thank you letter. And the more that we put out there, locally, regionally, nationally, around the world, it just adds, it sort of pushes back against the turmoil out there, as we like to call it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And kids get it. That's what we're striving for. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah, and so every little bit is a, you know, every act of kindness is that. And I think if we teach our kids like, why, and they and I, and when they ask the question, why do I have to do that? Have the answer and response Like, like, wouldn't it, would you like to receive one of these, you know? Wouldn't that be cool to get that in the mail? Or whatever the response should be, you know, and not just the just because this is the way it's done. It's like, ah, who wants to hear that? Right, yeah, no, because it's cool, it's fun, it really is, and you'll put us all. You'll put a smile on someone's face. How about that? Would you rather put?
Speaker 1:a frown or a smile, oh I want to put a smile, great guess what here it is?
Speaker 2:yeah, I like that idea, let's run with that.
Speaker 1:I love that. Simple, so wonderful where. What is your website and where can people go and social medias and be able to support and follow?
Speaker 2:you oh, you look up Karu Papritz on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter X. The Legacy Letters is probably the best place LegacyLetterscom to check out the book and a bit of what we're doing. But Facebook seems to be rock and rolling these days with lots of. We're trying to keep that going. As you well know, that is an art form to keep your social media up and running.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, karu Papariz and thelegacyletterscom.
Speaker 2:You surprised me, that's great.
Speaker 1:I got a. Amazon and you know I got a cool thing for you. Amazon does have the movie and Amazon Whoops I almost got the wrong one there.
Speaker 2:Sarah, I got a cool thing for you. Oh, it's still good, I got a cool thing for you, tell me. I was looking at one of the letters here in the book and I thought it might be appropriate. It's called Starting the Day. I can read a passage from it if you'd like, please.
Speaker 1:Yes, because it read a passage from it if you'd like, please.
Speaker 2:Yes, because it has a bit of gratitude infused inside of it. There we go. All right, are you ready? All right? He does not know the name of his kids. He will never know the name, and that's one of the sort of the sad parts of this. But he calls them little ones. So he says good morning, little ones. I woke up this morning to the door wide open. I must not have closed it all the way last night. Lucky me, because I'm watching from my bed at a most amazing theater, the falling of the biggest, fattest, slowest snowflakes I have ever seen.
Speaker 2:Lazily, lazy, like feather elephants elegantly dawdling on their way to work and he goes autumn from rainstorms to sunshine, to snowfalls and back again. Why do you think your old man loves this season so much? Look at the layer of frost on my blanket and thick enough to scrape ice doodles on it. I sure hope the coals in the stove are still hot. He says thank God for being alive this morning. And he says starting the day, another chance to be new again. How many of us still wish for that To be your own sunrise, to awaken like a prayer, both solemn and joyful at still being alive?
Speaker 2:Sometimes we make being happy so difficult and being thankful such a chore. Starting the day like a job we hate. Beginning it like swallowing 10 tablespoons of devil-made cough syrup because somehow along the way we forget that being alive and healthy and happy are noble goals or just good ideas. And then the opposite of being alive is being dead. What a choice. So open the day like a Christmas present waiting or a puppy needing petting or a new kiss of wanting. Open the back door, step out of the porch and greedily suck in some new air from this new day. It's free and there's lots of it. Start with a brand new good morning to your husband or wife, to your kids, to those you work with or don't work with. What's the harm? How difficult is it? And it isn't, and you know it. So do it and make it a habit. As hokey as it may sound, you have it good. You just have to remember how good.
Speaker 1:I love that, that we each make our own choice to be the hero or the victim of our own stories. And my husband loves to say do you want to be the hero or the victim today?
Speaker 2:So be your own hero. What a choice. What a choice. Start the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 1:No, I really want to be the victim.
Speaker 2:Honey, I know, seriously, I do. That sounds really great.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, I know he's. He's the right one. That's why I married him.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 1:Such a great experience and wonderful conversation with you today. I look forward to staying in touch and we're know, we're not that far away as in neighboring states either, so if we ever cross paths, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2:I would be honored. I would be honored. Thank you for having me on your show. It's wonderful. Thank you for all the amazing work you're doing out there. It's really something I always do my research before I have. I get on a show and I was like Whoa, this is really cool. I can't wait to talk with this, this person, cause she's got. She's got a lot on the go, a lot of good giving in the world, so I'm glad to add to that by being on the show, yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. I appreciate that Well. I am really really looking forward to staying in touch and again, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2:All right, Sarah. Thank you again. Thank you to all you out there. Take care.