photo: henry hamilton bennett

A friend recently sent us a postcard with this image; it’s called Leaping the Chasm at Stand Rock, Wisconsin Dells, 1887 by Henry Hamilton Bennett. On the back she wrote: “…thought it was an appropriate image for this phase of your life – taking risk, eager to have a new perspective/vantage point, lots of momentum for this jump, etc” .

We don’t know when a post card has packed more of punch. With it came such good wishes and recognition, we felt like we drank a tonic.

It’s partly the power of snail mail, because snail mail means someone has taken the time to write – in effect, to make – and send something tangible, giving the words all the more power. It’s REAL; we can tape it on our wall and be reminded of so much.

Postcard as tiny, potent gift.

Related posts: sending virtual flowers and b’day cakes
postcardly: send a real postcard via email
poems as gifts: don wentworth’s ‘past all traps’
“don’t give up!” (the inspirational letters project)
origami made of anything (vic muniz’ birds of a feather)

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3 replies on “postcards as tonic, fortifier and gift

  1. This photo actually has an interesting history. Mr. Bennett, the photographer, had been injured in the Civil War and ended up buying a photography studio. He was the one who invented the way to take a photo with stop action. He had his 17-year-old son, Ashley, make this jump and photographed him in the middle of his leap. When Mr. Bennett showed this photo at a photography convention in Chicago, not only were people amazed at what he had accomplished with stop action; they also wondered where this scenic place was. People then started coming to that area to view the amazing natural formations along the waterways. There are only three other places in the world with that kind of geological makeup. So that was the beginnng of what is now sometimes called “The Waterpark Capital of the United States”–Wisconsin Dells. There is a wonderful museum which shows much of the work of Mr. Bennett. He was a true entrepreneur.

  2. I am amazed and happy to have this info. Thank you so much for the story behind the leap.

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