The Society
An institution that does not
announce itself.
Founding Statement
Pride Post was founded in 2021 as a deliberate act against the velocity of modern communication. I wrote the first letter because I believed that some things deserved the weight of paper, the resistance of ink, the irreversibility of a wax seal. That belief has not changed. Each year, it is re-enacted.
Purpose
Correspondence is not communication. Communication moves information from one node to another. Correspondence moves the self — in handwriting, in the selection of a word, in the decision to cross something out or leave it. A letter carries the mark of the person who wrote it in ways that no typed message can replicate.
The ritual of Pride Post exists to honour this difference. One letter. One year. One recipient. No reply required.
The Annual Ritual
- I.
Selection. One recipient is chosen. The criteria are private and change each year. They are never informed in advance.
- II.
Writing. The letter is composed by hand, in a single sitting, on laid paper. No drafts are kept. The letter says what it says.
- III.
Sealing. The envelope is sealed with wax, poured and impressed with the annual seal stamp. The seal colour varies year to year.
- IV.
Posting. The letter is taken to a post office in a chosen country and dispatched through its national mail system. No tracking.
Record of Dispatches
1 letter dispatched — United Kingdom
Inaugural dispatch. Summer.
1 letter dispatched — France
Second dispatch. Autumn.
1 letter dispatched — Japan
Third dispatch. Winter.
1 letter dispatched — United Kingdom
Fourth dispatch. Spring.