Thank you, Richard

In the end, what means the most are the simple words
and simple gestures that come from the heart.

Richard Armitage in 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

A few days ago, Lanie - aka @bff222 - and I were tweet talking, and we arrived at the same place in some sort of simultaneous realization that we need to thank Richard Armitage.

At the very least, he brought the two of us together in the land of Twitter, along with an army of others, all of whom have been celebrating together these past few days to see this man take the world stage with unsurprising grace, aplomb and humor.

I said I was planning to send a letter. I love to write letters because they mean so much. And Lanie said she would write a thank-you note, too.

Then an idea hatched.

What if we made a card that each person could print, sign and mail to one of us (me!), and then I would ship off a beautiful package of thank-you letters from all of us who have been watching, attending and cheering together from around the world.

Yes, we want to make this a global thank you.

I put together a very simple card, showed it to Lanie and we are ready to go.

Oh, what's on the card? Two pictures, one of which you see here. You know the scene; it's the hug.

Yeah, that scene.

And then just the words "Thank You."

How do you join in this global thank you for Richard? Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is easy.

1. Click here to go to my site, GardenMaine.com, for a password-protected page.

2. Once there, click to download a high-resolution PDF or low-resolution JPG file and print it on a letter-sized piece of paper.

3. Write something on it. It's your note to Richard. Remember, there's also the back of the paper, too. :)

4. Sign it.

5. For fun, write where in the world you are. Just the country is fine or you can be more specific. I think he would appreciate seeing how he has brought so many of us together from around the world.

6. Put it in an envelope addressed to me (instructions on the protected page).

7. Before you seal it, if you can add a nickel, dime or quarter - or in whatever currency you might have - to help with postage, that would be great. (But if you can't, don't worry about it!) Any money over and above the cost will be donated to one of Richard's Just Giving charities. It's a win-win for everyone.

8. Seal it, mail it and maybe let me or Lanie know it's on its way, either here in comments, over on Twitter or by email listed on the protected page.

Our target collection date? Let's aim for getting your letter in the mail by Dec. 31, earlier if you are in a country outside the U.S.

Once I have all the letters I know are coming, I will get the package in the mail to Richard's agent in the U.K. My target date on that would be the week of Jan. 7, 2013.

What's that you say? Oh, that's right. You need a password to get in. I bet you could guess for I couldn't resist.

hotdwarf

Dec. 28, 2012 update: Thanks to Frenz at RAFrenzy.com for posting a few more words from me about this. You can read it here.