Monday, February 4, 2008

R-e-s-p-e-c-t

I want to start by making it clear that I have never felt that any of my letterbox clues, images nor the boxes themselves have ever been grossly disrespected, intentionally or not. That is not where I am going with this.

When someone has a history of enrichment, bringing high standards or inspiring quality their is a name that should be treated with respect. In the past time of letterboxing there are names of letterboxes and their creations that are respected. Regionally we are going to recognize a few different people who have contributed to letterboxing in a way that their competence is respected. It is a rare individual who is recognized inter/nationally for their contributions. Although I do not feel that anyone should be held up as a god, I think that recognizing that their name, creations and clues deserve respect. I think that respect can be reflected in the way we treat their name, clues, imprinted stamp images, location of and their letterboxes.

I admit to having done stupid thoughtless things in my life and I try to learn from them. An example is that I now I do my best to try to wait until after I have stamped into a letterbox before I pull out a snack. Even though a hike might have been exhausting, I know eating away from the box location will give it a better chance of being enjoyed by others. I try to respect the effort of each artist/creator/planter and when I fail, I try to learn for next time.

My disappointment has been generated by an incident I have become aware of where a special creation of a highly respected letterboxer was photographed at a child's birthday party. My imagination races with images of the dearly crafted logbook's entries (dating back over 6 years) being smudged with purple frosting from a Hannah Montanna birthday cake. The care taken in choosing the paper alone for the creation of the logbook does not deserve to be handled with greasy potato chip hands. I worry that whole box was passed around like a party favor, it's delicate stamp being mashed into logbooks as iced tea might be again spilled by an exurberant birthday celebrant. Obviously it was special enough to snap a photo of it and post it and mention it by name on the event page. My dismay is that it wasn't special enough to be respected and taken to a table that didn't have drinks on it. I question why a special letterbox with such a legacy and limited log space would be brought to any event. I had left it in a well crafted letterbox in the wild to reflect how I had found it and give it the special treatment it deserved.

My hope is that others will have a chance to enjoy this hitch hiker that I felt was very special. I hope that when it is released into the wilds again that no critters will smell any tantalizing food scents on it and try to eat it. I hope that after being at an event that the pages of the log book still have space for others to stamp in. Posting this photo at a child's birthday party does not reflect the respect any Legerdemaine box deserves if you ask me.