{"id":722,"date":"2011-08-12T07:03:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T11:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/myhappyplace\/?p=722"},"modified":"2011-08-11T22:23:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T02:23:52","slug":"the-power-of-the-pen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/08\/the-power-of-the-pen.html","title":{"rendered":"The Power of the Pen"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News reports that a nine-year-old Virginian boy put his wallet– containing over $300 he had saved and gift cards he had received for his birthday–down on a convenience store counter and the wallet was stolen. That would be the bad news. The good news is he wrote a hand-written letter and posted it, along with his photo, on the window of the store and the wallet was returned to him. I like<\/em> that! (Click here<\/a> to read the full story.)<\/p>\n

I remember when my little boy was a mere five years old and complained how the play ground equipment at our local park was broken. I suggested he write a letter to the editor and he did.\u00a0 It was published in the newspaper and the next year the city put up a fancy new play land.<\/p>\n

Just last week I was disappointed to see from my receipt that I had been over-charged at Logan’s Steakhouse. When I returned home I wrote a simple email explaining what had happened. A few days later I received $80 worth of gift cards for free food! (It was especially nice that those cards arrived in the mail on our wedding anniversary.)<\/p>\n

Ah, I do love the power of the pen!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CBS News reports that a nine-year-old Virginian boy put his wallet– containing over $300 he had saved and gift cards he had received for his birthday–down on a convenience store counter and the wallet was stolen. That would be the bad news. The good news is he wrote a hand-written letter and posted it, along…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,46],"tags":[262,184],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-news","tag-news","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Power of the Pen - My Happy Place<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/myhappyplace\/2011\/08\/the-power-of-the-pen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of the Pen - My Happy Place\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CBS News reports that a nine-year-old Virginian boy put his wallet– containing over $300 he had saved and gift cards he had received for his birthday–down on a convenience store counter and the wallet was stolen. 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