Fun wasn't it? On to the post.
In the same way listening to an audio book isn't really reading it, a written letter isn't the same as email.
I read today that for the typical American household, two months will go by before a personal, handwritten letter arrives. And the time between them is getting even longer. It's been coming for a while. It's not a shock.
But it is sad.
I know we're all about efficiency and fast, but with the slow disappearance of the written word, the handwritten word, there are two other casualties of the electronic age.
Grace. And impact.
No matter how hard it wants to be when it grows up, an email will never be as personal as a letter. It will always be cold and detached.
It will also never be permanent. It isn't something you'll pick up and read every few years, or keep in a trunk as a memory that can instantly take you back to a time, a place and a feeling (forgive me for going all Don Draper on you).
With the touch of a key - by you or someone else - the email is altered, or deleted. Gone.
Also, and this is a lesson I seem to keep learning over and over, with a letter you actually have time to consider whether you should send it. With some emails I've sent, before my finger is off the send button I wish I hadn't.
The impact of the idea that someone takes the time, makes the effort and gives considered thought to exactly the words they want to say to you, then puts them down on paper, can't be overestimated. Or duplicated.
As a result of email, I believe we've cheapened the currency of the written word. We now have the ability to yammer on about any trivial thing back and forth, all day long. There's no picking your fights. Choosing your battles.
With hands on the keyboard, you think it here, it comes out there.
The art, skill and thought required to compose a letter is being lost, as so many things are when an easier way is found. (Can you name three kids who can drive a stick shift? Didn't think so.)
Even though the postal service is faltering, mail won't disappear entirely. The bills, supermarket flyers, Land's End catalogs and election year propaganda will always find a way to the mail box.
But I seriously doubt you'll be looking forward to any of it.
3 comments:
I was just writing a few letters before I read this. I love the pen, the paper, the stamp... all that good stuff. I don't care that it takes longer than an email. And it's just about the cheapest way to make someone's day. Gimme your address.
I love paper, too, but I mostly only send cards these days. I've succumbed to the email machine.
However, when Mr. W is gone for work, I write him little short love letters in a journal and he gets to read them when he comes home. I'm sure those journals will be fun to read in 30 years.
here's the problem. i have lost all handwriting skills. gone. just NEVER hand write anything but shopping and to-do lists anymore. I COULD send card, note whatever, but it'd be torture for me to write and you to read.
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