Written a letter lately? Me neither. I wasn't much of a letter writer in the past. Fewer and fewer are opting to communicate with pen and paper apparently. Writing a letter is hard work. Emails are easy and fast. Letters have a much greater probability of lasting a long time, emails not so much and even less for text messages.
I admire the Permanence of letters. Due to some remodeling around the house, I had to move some stuff out of closets, and found an old letter written to my wife and I from my spouse's grandmother. Her hand was far from smooth, but was legible. The letter did not contain news of daily life around her house but applauded our recent marriage and offered her advice to us for life. Its likely the only thing we have from her.
On an episode of TV show MASH, Hawkeye is writing a long letter to his father. There were a lot of letters written and received in that series. There is a huge thick book of letters written by CS Lewis - but somebody valued and kept all those letters, and then rounded them up. As the above article cites, Napoleon's letters to Josephine are still around and still pretty steamy. Much is made of John Adams' letters to Abigail, and hers to him. There is great value in these items.
Letters are meant to communicate very important thoughts and feelings. There is a lasting connection between sender and the receiver. Here is a blog post by someone celebrating the receipt of a handwritten letter, altho he somehow can't return the favor and write back, but instead settles for a phone call - he admits he is no longer in the habit and considers himself a victim of email ease. Greeting card companies now exist to relieve the tension of writing or saying just the right thing I suppose.
Go create some hand written memories - somewhere, either as letters or grocery lists. It will give someone warm memories when they remodel the house.
PS Another lamenting the loss of the habit of writing. (from the year 2000, so this erosion has be ongoing for some time.)
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