The Uncommon Joys of a Letter in the Mail (Old Style)

I received a letter from an old friend recently.

In today's electronic world, such a hand-written missive is unusual. One of her letters is a treasure to me :

* To see her handwritten script
* The texture and feel of the envelope
* It's probably handmade paper (I can see fibers and petals)
* It has a luxurious, soft and comforting feel that I want to brush against my cheek.
* The feel of it took me by surprise. Even I'm too used to email and voice-mail--not this slow communication.

We don't write as often as we used to ...

In the old days, I would always be writing a letter to her. When it got to be 7-8-9-10 pages, I would pop it in the mail to her and start a new one (usually the same day).

We knew what was going on with the other--maybe not instantly, but we kept in touch. I still have a large box full of our correspondence from those years. I'm keeping them--someday, such letters will be unusual and valuable and interesting in a way "post-modern" people won't be able to understand. And someday, our letters may be in a museum or srchive somewhere... everything is INSTANT with email and telephones. With the letters, we can keep up with each other. It's a different scale of time, not instant, but deep. Therefore, an written letter is special.

Would you be more likely to go back through a pile of old email on a rainy nostalgic day? Probably not--the font, plain paper (if it was printed at all) just doesn't have the appeal. Email is convenient and it has its place, but I'm not sure it will ever have such a feel for nostalgia. Email is too temporary, too throw-away. A written letter is all about a certain point in time, but the physical medium, the feel of good stationary makes it more about history. Something to KEEP.

For most of our lives, my friend and I have lived apart. Even in junior high and high school, we wrote notes to each other. Neither of us was fond of or comfortable with telephones, so we wrote and made plans to get together.

Even now, when we do get together, it doesn't take long to catch up. And there, too, it is a comfort to be with someone who knows me so well, and for so long ...

Is it the handwriting that makes a real letter so personal?

I still have the postcards and letters from my dear friend, Sandy. She died shortly before my son was born ... Since she's gone, those cards and letters mean a lot to me. I'm glad she sent them. It's what I have left of her. We would email on occasion, too. I still have her in my address book and send her messages sometimes. I know they don't get to her that way anymore, but I can't delete her from my address book, either.