Letters, Emails and Text...

I was watching "You've Got Mail" for probably the millionth time last night. I thought about email and how it's amazing that with that and online billpay and ecards and Facebook and the like, it's amazing the United States Postal Service hasn't been put out of business yet. The price of postage doesn't help.

When I was young, I used to write letters all the time. Of course, this was before the Internet and email existed, so that and the telephone were the preferred methods of long-distance communication. And considering my dad wasn't really big on long distance phone bills, it was probably the only method of long-distance communication for me. I wrote to my summer camp friends. I wrote to the kids I knew from other schools through playing ball and cheerleading. I even wrote to my school friends during the summer when we were separated from each other. Now, it's all I can do to write a grocery list and I haven't sent out real (not virtual) Christmas cards in years.

I guess it's the way it goes with the advancement of technology. Text is starting to replace phone calls...which, of course, we can do from pretty much anywhere thanks to mobile phones. Even email and instant messaging have started taking a backseat to Facebook and MySpace communication. The technology train sometimes moves so fast it makes me a little nauseated.

My thoughts on this started veering toward my parents. They are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday. I'll write more about that later, for that is a blog that deserves it's own turn in the spotlight. The reason why it's relevant here is that my parents started out knowing each other through letters. When my mom was 15 and my dad was 18 and in the Navy with my uncle, they became pen pals. It wasn't anything serious at first, but grew into something and by the time they met each other three years later, the rest was history. Imagine three years of letter-writing and feeling like you know somebody inside and out and then finally being able to lay your eyes on that person. It's quite romantic, actually.

I guess my point is that I think letters reveal something in you that emails, texts, Facebook messages and even phone calls can't. Because we're putting forth an effort, I think the things we put in a letter are somehow more real, never flippant, always well thought-out. We can type something in an email and hit the send button before we've really thought about what we've just typed. But a letter takes time. There's just something about writing it out, putting it into an envelope, and mailing it that is simple, yet complex, all at the same time. And the thought of it compels me to slow down, to really think about the things I say to other people, to make my communication more personal and make every word count. I think we all feel that way. After all, isn't it funny how even with the ability to communicate with each other more quickly, efficiently and often than ever before, we still love getting mail? (You know, except bills.)

I've been thinking recently about writing a letter to somebody special and writing this blog has encouraged me to not just think about it, but do it. And next year, I'm sending Christmas cards.