The easy postcard

by Anton Zuiker on April 10, 2026

Uncle Larry's postcards to Jenny, collected

My uncle, Larry Zuiker, founded a hikers club in Arizona and wrote a book about his treks throughout the western United States and our national parks, and he once led me on hike near Phoenix when I was there for a conference.

Over the last 20 years, Larry has been sending me postcards about his adventures, including in Zion National Park. When we saw him in Boulder for Uncle Denny’s funeral, Larry had given me and Erin tips for our own trip to Zion, including to get up to Walter’s Wiggles and Angel’s Landing; he followed up by sending his own photos of the canyon’s hikes, simply writing on the back of each photo, adding our address, and affixing a stamp. As I blogged last week, I only made it as far as Scout Point, but on my way down the trail, I paused at the top of the Wiggles to record a short video message to Larry that I texted him later that night. I also sent him a Zion postcard once I returned home to North Carolina.

(In Boulder, I also had learned that Larry’s been sending postcards to some of my other cousins. Jenny had her collection on a ring so we could turn through them all. I was impressed that Jenny had presented them this way, and I had even more admiration for my uncles.)

Coincidentally, the same day that I was hiking the wiggles, my friend Karyn Murphy, who lives in Homer, Alaska, was telling her own story of a postcard collection. Alloted just five minutes to show and tell (it’s a format called PechaKucha), she explained how her mother had sent simple-seeming postcards to her when she was living on the island of Molokai and how, in the final year of her mother’s life, she returned the favor. It’s a heartwarming story and, given Karyn’s artistic and curious nature, an inspiring one.

Listen and watch:

(Karyn told a version of this story in one of the Talk Story sessions I hosted in 2012. Watch here and read the News & Observer report.)

And yesterday, at a perfect vineyard wedding in Lovingston, Virginia, I was invited to do just that. Instead of a traditional guestbook, Agustin and Maya invited us to pick a postcard from the rack—cities, states, countries, and national parks—write a message, and drop it into a metal lunchbox. Zion was there, and many other places I’ve visited or hope this lovely and talented couple may one day visit, but instead I selected Big Bend National Park, which reminded me of my sister-in-law’s art about the Rio Grande and the rafting trip in Big Bend that Katherine had taken us on in 2015. ‘May you have wonderful adventures!’ I finished my note to the newlyweds.

Here on my desk is a stack of unused postcards, which I’ve ben collecting since my childhood and that I dug out of a storage box. In another box, I’ve saved the cards I’ve received through the years; it was fun and emotional to reread these.

Giles Turnbull recently wrote a blog post about How to write more postcards — “Make it easy, like texting is,” he wrote, along with advice that “you don’t have to have a lot to say. It’s fine to just send a single question, or a sentence or two.”

Thank you, Larry and Karyn and Agustin and Maya and Giles, and so many others.

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