The Fading Art of Letter Writing
How many letters do you receive a year? One? Five? Ten? Do you remember that people used to sit down and write letters to each other? My favorite were love letters and Christmas letters. Both warmed my heart and made me feel special;. Just the finding of them in my mailbox gave me a happy feeling, much more than an email or a text message. Ah, could be my old school thinking rearing its head again, but a handwritten letter was special. The person sat down, selected the paper they wanted you to read from and wrote, usually in longhand. Somehow hearing their thoughts represented an intimate moment when you were their sole focus for ten or twenty minutes. They address an envelope, add a stamp and make the trip to the mailbox to send their thoughts to you.
I have a friend, Gretchen, who still writes letters. When she sends me a letter, I feel the thousands of miles between us disappear. I have her back in my life in a way that defies explanation. It’s even better than a phone call since the writer often shares something that’s on their mind rather than answering your questions : how are you, what’s happening, how’s … doing.
I’m trying to reestablish my note writing and next my letter writing. It’s one more way to stay connected with family and friends that I appreciate and that I hope those I write to will enjoy.To those who continue to write notes and share their thinking, I say, thanks. I am lucky enough to have several note writers in my life that I hope to emulate. Thank you for being my role models: Linda, Karen, Catherine and others. May our numbers increase in 2015!! Next, on to the elusive letter.
Your thoughts? Might you join me in restoring letter writing? There’s so many beautiful papers on which to share your thoughts these days, I hope you’ll take up your pen and join me.
The other advantage of letter writing is the record those letters leave for future generations. My dad wrote letters to my mom during WWII. In one of the letters he writes about how excited he was to hear of my birth. Here’s a link to the blog in which I quote from some of those letters: http://nickichenwrites.com/wordpress/war/letters-from-the-attic/
When I read the title of this offering, I was reminded that I need to do this more and spend time trolling on fb less. Hard to break that old fb habit, though. And I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit that I’ve grown lazy–though lax is a word I’d prefer, with a less negative edge–in the “writing actual letters and notes” department. Don’t even compose many long(er) e-mails any more. The less I do (during these wonderful retiree years), the less I want to do. Bad (lazy, nonproductive) habits take over–sort of like the moss in my lawn. Doesn’t seem serious, until/unless I look closely at my life/lawn. Creeping detachment I guess you could call it. And I want to stay connected, in fact become MORE connected as life’s river flows ever more swiftly past. SO: thanks for the reminder, good actively-writing friend. I’ll work (and think and write) harder to use all those note cards and post cards and self-made envelopes that are weighing down my briefcase…Tom