This year has been one around the world that the right to be heard has been more prominent than in recent decades. Presidential elections and attempted couts have been the front page news on every continent and are in many ways sharing the common persons need to be heard and equal rights for all.

Seem cliché? Or does it seem like a time in history that we read about and learn in school? Whether it is right here in the United States, with one of the most tumultuous, but exciting primary seasons remembered in electoral history; or if it is the radical elections in Zimbabwe or Pakistan, people want to be heard, they want their opinion to count.

This needs to be heard. The need to have a voice can be translated into any life situation. It seems as if during a time of global economic issues it is exaggerated for those without resources or for those that are disadvantaged. I am likely not telling you anything you do not already know, but more people everyday become faceless statistics that are part of studies and reports.

I recently got a dose of this myself. I own a home on Long Island, New York. My homeowner’s policy was not renewed because the company felt I was in a “risk area”. Firstly, I was astounded by the news considering that I had been of the up most status with the company, and had never even filed a claim on any of the four policies I had with them for many years; but mostly I was offended by the “form letter” I received from the corporate offices notifying me of the “non renewal status” with no reason stated. Global Warming has caused many natural disasters, hurricanes, and tornados, and after a very angry note to the company’s CEO, I finally was told this was the reason.

Now, I certainly am blessed enough in life to be able to immediately get another policy, but that is not the point. This company could really have left me out there with no options. In the wake of Katrina, and now Ike in Texas, many people will be left with no support from exactly who is supposed to be there for them. My dear friend Wyclef Jean is in Haiti now for a relief effort for his native land. Many are left stranded with no government or assistance from anyone. You can say this about many industries, and countries on a global basis. It is not exclusive to any country or any insurance company now. It is a shame, much like Wall Street however, that these big insurance companies have CEOs that are not taking cuts in wages or bonuses what so ever. The CEO of my insurance company for example makes over $20M in salaries and bonuses per year. However, his company is canceling policies to eliminate the company’s risk. Is that what insurance is? Risk?

In any case, my point is that you need a voice. You need to be heard. Whether it is the election on November 4th here in the United States, or your insurance policy being unjustly cancelled for no reason. Participate in what is your life. Stand up. Be heard. VOTE!

I wrote my first blog entry about a year ago for BOX 388,and had so many drafts of those to follow it. The funny thing is that I received so many notes each weekresponding to it that I always felt it was premature to take it down. So days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. It is now the beginning of a New Year, and even though I still have the nicest notes each day responding to the them of communication in that first entry, I feel it is just necessary to move on as many would say.

Life is the greatest gift, and over the past month I have had several friends lose important people in their lives. Most notely is a dear friend that has lost their first born during child birth. It reminds you, especially during the month of December and the holiday season that more to life than the silly and unnecessary things we get obsessed with. If you are dark, then light will not shine on your life. You must pick up and move on. Happiness is a decision. So I invite you all into the light of happiness and ask you to choose the good things, even if some days you struggle to just come up with one, to focus on.

Today I am at the Sundance Film Festival. If you are ever lucky enough to attendsuch an event, please take advantage. It is my 8th year attending. Some years I am working with artists performing at various studio parties or corporate sponsored events, I have also come just to vacationand enjoy some skiing with a movie slide in here and there. This year it is a combination of the two.

Today I awakened to a new blanket of snow. It reminded me of how lucky and blessedmy life is. However, you have torecognize these things and not take them for granted. This is where light shines down and you decide if things arebad or good. I could sit around in my room and worry about the various disasters that are occurring with many of my friends, how I am going to get a long list of impossible tasks done, and most immediate, how I am going to get to my first appointment that is on MainStreet in Park City through a new batch of snow in the next 30 minutes. I decided that the universe wanted me to slow down and enjoy the beauty in front of me, not get stressed out, and put myself in a different frame of mind to tackle the many issues at hand (both serious and not serious).

As I went out in the freezing cold to catch a taxi or shuttle into town with my laptop. I decided I would begin to walk. It was freezing, and perhaps I would regret my spontaneous decision to be engulfed in being moved by a higher being, but for the meantime it was a delightful and peaceful journey. It made me realize (really I am not trying to be corney here) that you never stop to really think, ponder, examine, and enjoy. Life is what you make it. It really is! This is not a cliché’. I decided at that moment that I was going to have the most productiveday, right here in Park City, but also find balance in it. You never know what life is going to deliver you. You never know what it may through in your path. If you are not emotionally prepared to accept it, you can get kicked around by your own inability to see the good in everything.

BOX 388 was the post mailbox at my late grandmother’s house in Western Pennsylvania. I used tospend each morning during the summers, while staying with her, waiting for the postman to drive upwith the mail. You see, in rural towns, many of the roads just simply do not have names. Mygrandmother’s road was simply called RD 1, and it wasn’t exactly in the town. It was about 3 milesoutside the town. To locals, they knew it as ‘the Game School’ Road because the Pennsylvania GameCommission had a training facility about 12 miles ‘down the road’.

Imagine a beautiful quite country road with virtually no traffic. Literally about 10 cars would pass inwhat seem the entire day. The scent of lilac bushes and wild flowers in the air. There always seemedto be a soft breeze at that time of day (usually around 11a). On that country road, you could seenearly a half mile in either direction. An approaching car could be heard before seen….. probably aquarter mile before in site.

In the summers since my birth my parents would take a well needed and deserved break from mybrother and I. We would visit my maternal grandmother during that time. She lived in a farmhouseon what was a farm placed on 97 acres in Pennsylvania. When I was very young it was stillfunctioning as a farm with a barn, hen house, crops and the such. My mother and my grandmotherboth were born and raised in that house. It had so much history in it. I loved staying there becauseit seemed so much like the true definition of home. At that stage in my life (not even 10 years old), Ireally only had known two homes. My real home in Columbia, Maryland, where I lived with myparents and my brother, and this farmhouse that my mother grew up in. Indeed, we had all kinds ofextended family, and had lived in an apartment in Washington, D.C. before moving into the suburbsof Maryland, but these two homes were where I had memories, and history of my own as a person.My grandmother’s house was my favorite place on earth. I used to cry when I had to leave.

Each day, during our summer visits I would look forward to mail from my pen pals, schoolmates, andthe colorful postcards from my mother or father. My parents divorced when I was ten years old, butthe tradition of staying with my grandmother, and my parents each sending postcards from theirtravels continued from the many destinations they chose to escape to! It is funny, I never wanted togo on these trips with them. I loved the summers with my brother and grandmother so much, it hadbecome understood that was just what we all did for several weeks in July every year until I was ayoung adult.

One of my favorite summers of receiving mail was one in which my mother traveled across countryon motorcycle, camping along the route. Almost every other day the postman delivered photos andcards of old american western towns like Dodge City, Kansas; Indian reservations in Wyoming andOklahoma; and swinging hotels in Las Vegas (obviously that was not the camping portion of the trip)!

My imagination ran away with me in each card. I envisioned visiting each destination. That was thesummer I truly fell in love with a “letter”. I loved corresponding! I also had a few pen pal friends Ihad met in girls clubs and camp also. One in Champagne, Illinois and another in Oklahoma City. Idreamed of traveling not only to these places to visit my “friends”, but also had decided then that Iwanted to see the world! I wrote a letter to Amy Carter (President Jimmy Carter’s daughter) at theWhite House. I wanted to let her know that I, too, loved my cat, and his name was “Sugarfoot”. Shedid in fact (or her people did), send a returned postcard with a thank you note. I was thrilled!!! Shedid not sign it herself, but I didn’t care. I received a postcard from the WHITE HOUSE!!!!

What this did teach me is that it is appropriate to write a stranger as long as you clearly explainyourself and respect the individual you are encouraging to respond. Later in college, I encouragedmy friends to always write letters in protest or to articulate their dissatisfaction in an issue on campus(as long as you are always respectful and articulate). I sent letters to my Council Member here inNew York City about noise pollution in my neighborhood (he and his staff responded expeditiously)!!!Letters give you a voice! And I discovered that summer that I loved hearing the voices of my parentsand my friends even more! I sat on the front porch or in my grandmothers “front parlor” reading andwriting many of my days! Waiting for the postman! I lived and dreamed through that postbox….BOX 388 on the Game School Road!

So, in honor of it, I invite you to feel at “home” here and communicate with me through BOX 388. Wewill dream, communicate, share, and imagine. Build each other up and develop who we are asindividuals. We can not achieve anything until we know and love ourselves. Find what it is we want tobe. Embrace our need to evolve and welcome our imperfections!

We are in a digital world now, but letters still carry that same important part of communicating andsharing with one another (even on the net). So, in my first letter to “you”, and “you” may be mymentees at Washington-Irving High School in New York City, a classmate, a student that reaches outto me from the fine universities in the United States and Europe, or just simply a young personseeking advice in life or business. I invite you to not only talk to me, but with each other. Share yourdifferences, views, culture and experiences for other women, girls, and people like you.

I look forward to meeting you.

Lisa Ellis