Who Remembers Handwritten Letters?
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
I‘m going to ask you to step away from Twitter, Tagfoot, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the other social networks that have stapled your brain to the Internet. Let’s travel back in time to the days before e-mail, when the arrival of that little postal truck meant more than bills and catalogs.
Do you remember searching through the pile of mail for a letter with a recognizable address, or handwriting you could identify right away? There it was–a friend who hadn’t written in ages. If you were lucky, you might even receive two or three letters in one delivery.
Some people wrote letters on plain lined notebook paper. Others, like my friend Kathy, used crinkly pastel paper with a fancy design running across the top of the page. My aunt’s letters always smelled like roses. I read my letters slowly, the way I read a good book when I reach the very last chapter.
My newest lens is about communication–how our words can enrich lives and deepen relationships. It’s a tribute to paper letters…nostalgic but not sappy. No Kleenex needed this time.
I hope In Praise of Paper Letters leaves you with warm, sweet memories of people you used to correspond with by postal–a grandparent? best friend? elementary school pen pal?
Who knows, you might even try your hand at writing one–just for the shock effect, of course. 
I’m thinking along those lines myself. Might write my sister a real letter. She lives twelve miles from me, but it would give her a good laugh, and I know she’d probably save it. She’s sentimental that way.
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