Sunday, November 22, 2009

Letters.

I wish the act of letter writing was still practiced.

A letter has the power to illustrate so many emotions and so much truth. Handwriting can be an interesting insight to the person writing and nowadays we rely entirely on typed text. An email, message or text message can be fixed. It can be erased, spell-checked, clearly read, previewed, drafted, edited...perfected. The interesting things about handwritten letters are the imperfections. The smear of the pen ink, the print that slowly changes to cursive while spurting out a heart-felt concept, the scratched out words, the wrinkle in the page, the way it's signed, the way it's sealed, the way it's addressed.

When my Grandmother was going to college, she told me her and my Grandfather would write letters back and forth, because they were going to different colleges. She grinned and said, "I was so excited every time a new letter would come in the mail."

In middle school through high school my friends and I would write letters to each other, and I remember all of those ridiculous colored pens we would use. It was so much fun. I still have alot of mine saved...somewhere. I remember how thrilling it was to receive one from a boy or crush, and how many times I would read over it and rehearse it to my friends.

Do you have any good memories of letter writing?


3 comments:

180DegreesofRicky said...

I am writing you a letter, give me your address. I get to figure out what era it is from, and what its intent is.

Taylor Glen Muse said...

I lived in Nashville for year and while I was there my friend Leah, (who would later become my girlfriend, and then later become my wife) and I wrote letters to each other. It was the highlight of any day to get one. Email just doensn't capture that feeling and I can't draw unicorns on emails.

MairHeard said...

Ricky, we should!

Taylor, no wonder you two are married now. You both appreciated such a small thing. That's very special.