The Joys of Writing the Old Fashioned Way

I have been writing letters back and forth with a friend recently.  I'm not talking about email or texts, but real, old fashioned letters - the kind that you write out longhand and fold and put in an envelope with a stamp.  Yes, the kind of letters that the person can't read until days later.  This correspondence has been going on for a couple of months and, judging by how we both feel about it, I suspect it will continue for a long time.

It has been years since I actually corresponded with someone on an ongoing basis via snail mail. Oh, I have written and sent quick thank you notes, but that's not the same.

I have been reminded that while we gained some things in our societal shift to email (efficiency, time, money), we have also definitely lost some things that I never appreciated as important before.

The first of these is anticipation. I check for a letter from my friend with anticipation.  When there is no letter on any given day, I'm a little bit sad.  When there is a letter, I'm a bit excited, and it's like a present - wrapped inside the envelope, waiting to be discovered.

Another thing we have lost is thoughtfulness.  You can write much more in a typed email than you can in a longhand written letter in the same period of time, so it's easy to just throw thoughts out without thinking about them.  In a letter, the process is slower, so you think more.  Also, because I can't just write letters all day long the way I can shoot out quick emails all day, I find myself thinking of things I want to add to my next letter to my friend as I'm doing things in life.  As I experience things, I think, "I'd really like to share this with XYZ," and the thought of my friend makes me smile.  It's like we share a private moment even when we're not having contact with each other.

It's really hard to tell someone's mood from the cold typewritten text of an email.  In fact, many misunderstandings result from that lack of personal connection that email leaves.  In a handwritten letter, its much easier to read between the lines.  You can sense joy, frustration, whimsy, anger, sadness, and more all from the flow of your friend's writing.

Finally, as I read a long three-page letter from my friend, I have the sense that he really cares.  He took quite a bit of time to sit down and write out his thoughts just for me.  There are other things he could have been doing, but he chose to focus on sharing with me.  People talk alot these days about quality relationships and quality time. When you're reading a long, handwritten letter, you can feel the quality time that was devoted to the relationship.

So, consider taking some time today to turn off the computer and write an old fashioned letter to someone you care about.  I think you'll be surprised at how it makes you feel.

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