The 2024 Letter Challenge

A few months ago, I got a notification from Google that "Any email or Google Drive account that has been inactive for 5 or more years will be deleted in 30 days". Well, once upon a time, I was the president of a 4 year college, but I hadn't checked that email/Google drive in years. In there is all sorts of things that I thought might be useful in there, or at least things worth saving, so I decided to log in...

Thus began my exactly-29-days fight with Google to get into my old account.

I had the email address and password still, so I punched all that in. Unfortunately, I had enabled two factor authentication, and Google wanted to send a confirmation to a phone that I haven't had since 2015. (I did check my junk drawer to see if I still had the phone. I did not...) Fortunately, I had the account recovery email and recovery phone number. I punched those in, but Google replied by asking me to "enter the amount and last 4 digits of the credit card you last used to pay for your email address". This was 8 years ago, and I'm certainly not that organized, so I wrote to their help desk, where I was told "there's nothing we can do".

It took me 3 weeks, but I ended up coaxing the webmaster for the school to upload a DNS record to confirm that I (they) owned the domain name, paid about $300 in back-fees, and jumped through several other hoops, and the day before they were going to wipe everything out, I got in to my old account!

Flipping through what was there, I came across my most treasured folder: Writing Challenges

On the Jewish calendar, nestled between Passover (when the Jews left slavery in Egypt) and Shavuot (when we received the Torah at Sinai) is the Omer: 49 days of themed contemplation.

Back in 2011, I was going through one of the more challenging times in my life. Really, everything in my life was falling apart, but I didn't dare let the facade crack. I plastered on a smile every day while feeling like I was going to die inside. Years of this kind of suppression left me physically sick; I would wake up in the morning and vomit a few times from stress, and I had a constant upper-chest infection that I affectionately called "stress cough". (This is not an exaggeration...)

I desperately needed something that felt authentic and felt connecting to other people. A friend suggested that I write something, from the heart, every day for the 49 days of the Omer and then (here's the kicker...) send it out to the college's email list.

Honestly, I had no idea how that would go over. At the time, we had about 8000 people on the mailing list. How many of them wanted to read nearly two months of heart-felt musings from a college president they didn't know from a bar of soap? Not many, I guessed.

But I really did need the sense of connection to community again, so I made a commitment. Write something every day for 49 days and send it out. See what happens.

I wrote about my life as a mountain guide, challenges that I had with my parents from childhood, questions about G-d and the universe, and what it meant to be human.

As the 49 days wore on, my musings got longer and more wide ranging. I thought about all sorts of things, and I did it in a very public "professional" space, where this sort of thing was supposed to be verboten.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that I'd have to spend an hour or two each morning replying to emails that came in about whatever I'd written about the day before. I'd struck a chord...

The next year, I invited my growing email list to write along with me. Every day, I'd send out a prompt, and anyone who was inspired to write on the topic could. The only rule was that you had to post whatever you wrote to a community forum, where other people could read it. Eric Ericson calls this "psychosocial reciprocity" - the need we have to been seen by others the way we see ourselves. Ericson says this public soul-baring is a critical step to self-actualization, and I agree.

Anyhow, for the next 8 years, I would do a 49 day Writing Challenge over the Omer. I'd send out an email every day to my whole mailing list. And anyone who wanted to join me, I'd send them a daily writing prompt and they'd either send it to their email list or post it to the school's internal forum. (When I left the school in 2016, I had 1471 people writing along with me every day of the Omer, and ~150,000 people who read my post.)

It was this folder that I found in my Google drive - years and years of writings, musings, thoughts, and ideas, probably 500 emails spanning 3000 pages. Over the past few months, I've been reading back through it...

I can't overstate how much my life revolves around the writing I've done over the Omer. As I look through, I see the genesis of all the ideas/paradigms I'm playing with now, and I can see how they've grown, matured, shifted over the years. I can see seeds planted that have grown, and others that I've let go of.

Everything significant I've done in my life over the past decade-plus was seeded during an Omer Writing Challenge.

But I haven't done one in a few years, since 2021. (It's been a crazy few years...) and I need it more than ever. And I'll bet you might too...

So...

I'd like for you to join me for this year's Omer Writing Challenge, beginning at sundown on Tuesday, April 23, ending 7 weeks later, on Tuesday, June 11.

But this year, I want to offer something a little different:

About 18 months ago, I decided I not to write emails any more, at least as much was practically possible (for the story about why, you'll have to wait a few days...). So, as I feel into what I'd like to do for the Omer challenge this year, I'm not going to write an email for 49 days and send it out to you. Nor am I going to put together an email-writing-cohort to share a daily prompt with.

Instead, this year, I'm doing a 49 Letter Challenge.

What the heck is that? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like.

The 49 Letter Challenge

Way to Participate #1: Get a Letter from Me, Every Day

Each of the 49 days, I'm going to hand write a letter (ok, I'm going to type it on a typewriter, because my handwriting is illegible even to me most of the time) to anyone who wants to get one. Every day of the Omer has its own theme, and I'm definitely in a transition/creative space, so I'd imagine this year will throw some pretty wild thoughts/feelings/ideas your way.

All I'm asking is that you help me cover the cost of stamps and envelopes: $36 if you're a member of the community and $72 if you're not. (Membership is only $18/month or $180 a year.) In return, a letter from me each day of the Omer, plus or minus the vagaries of the post office.

Way to Participate #2: Join Me in the Letter Writing Challenge

This is the one that'll really change everything for you. The challenge will be for you to write, and send!, a letter every day of the Omer, on a theme, to someone. You probably won't know who you're going to write to until the day, when you read the theme and writing prompt. Maybe you'll write to the same person for 49 days. Maybe you'll write to 49 different people. Or some combination of the two.

That, really, is the whole point. A deep dive into connection and flow and trust...

Because I'm not doing digital this year, I've got something extra special planned: a few days before the Omer begins, about April 20, a box is going to arrive on your doorstep. Inside will be 49 envelopes with 49 cards. On one side of the card will be a bit of artwork, commissioned from 49 different artists across the country, with each artist's reflection on the day. On the other side will be 1) a summary of the Omer theme for the day, as understood through Kabbalah; 2) a short reflection from me on the Omer theme; and 3) your writing prompt for the day.

And so you, along with me, will go on a deep dive, writing a letter each day and, in the process, planting the seeds of presence and openness to wild possibility.

I can't wait...

The cost for the Omer Letter Challenge Box + Getting a Letter from Me (option 1, above) is $360 for members or $440 for non-members. (Again, membership is $18/month or $180/year.)

Way to Participate #3: For One Person Who Wants to See How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes

I know this is a bit of a moonshot, but... For the past 4 or 5 months, I've been writing a book (vaguely) about the many ways we know/understand/experience time. But, in the past month, it's become really clear to me that this isn't meant to be a book. Instead, it's meant to be a conversation with someone.

Who? I don't know. Maybe you?!?

What does "conversation" mean? I'm not quite sure yet, but imagine an hour or two of deep dive every day for the 49 days, over some combination of VHS (yes, analog video), cassette, photograph, letter, and phone call. It'll probably start with some questions about how we perceive the world and move from there.

I really don't know where this is going to go, but I do know that it's my deepest calling right now. And a chance to work intimately with someone, in ways that we probably can't anticipate.

I don't really have a fixed cost for this, as my priority is on finding the right person rather than worrying too much about the cost. But, I can say that I'm thinking this'll be around 100 hours of work + the supplies I've got planned will probably run about $2000, so... I'll need some financial help with this.

If you'd like to make a donation to help support the Time Project, click here>>

And if you're interested in an intimate exploration of spirituality, quantum physics, art, and what it means to be human with me, can dedicate a few hours every day for two months, from April 23 to June 11, and can help me financially support the project, send me an email, rabbiben@rabbiben.com, and let's find a time to jump on the phone in the next few days.

If not now, when?

-Rabbi Ben