If you were asked what you thought the average Edina teen does when they know something is wrong with the world, you’d probably respond, “Well, they’d most likely just complain about it on the world wide web, then go out back and eat expired fireworks.”
While that might hold true for the teens you know, there’s one kid in Edina who defies that stereotype. What’s his name? Aaron Lark. How does he defy it? By writing letters.
Yes, every day young Lark comes home from school and starts working on a new letter that he hopes will change the world. Don’t believe a young person could do that? Just look at what he wrote to a prominent media figure last week:
“Dear The Number 7, please pull your sponsorship from Sesame Street, which I feel portrays negative stereotypes of monsters.”
That’s just plain inspiring.
He knows that he can’t possibly know every tiny detail of the problems he sees in the world, so he keeps his letters brief but strong.
“Dear Florida, I find that you are offensively shaped and I want you to change it as soon as possible.”
But he doesn’t just write letters to complain. He also takes time from his tireless crusade to make the world a better place to check in on friends or support celebrities.
“Dear Cousin Tedford, what is your favorite deadly sin? Mine is vainglory.”
“Dear Jason Schwartzman, how much blood do you have? It must be a lot, right?”
If only every millennial did this!
While Aaron himself declined to be interviewed, his mother, Earletta Lark, talked to us about the first letter he ever wrote. “It was when he was just a preschooler he asked me if I would help him write a letter to his imaginary friend, Fat Jimmy, to tell him that he was going to eat him. So I told him the letters to write and he sent it and soon enough he did eat Fat Jimmy and it was beautiful.”
Earletta got choked up with nostalgia after she said that. Truly beautiful.
He doesn’t always get responses, some of the people he writes to are too busy to write back or simply don’t care to help him change the world. But he is proud to say that Harper Lee, Senator Ted Cruz, Santa, The Number 7, Fat Steve, Jason Schwartzman, The Physical Embodiment of Greed have all written back kindly, promptly, and sincerely. He has their response letters framed about his bed.
Now, if that’s not incredible than I don’t know what is.
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