When is the last time you wrote a letter?
No, not a complaint, not a response to some bill, but an honest to goodness “pen in hand” letter.
Of course, without any technology 150 years ago and before that, people effectively HAD to write hand written letters.
Some were forceful, some were witty, many were romantic, and many more were direct and some even brilliant.
But there was an art to letter writing.
People who wrote observational letters were always fascinating people to me.
People who wrote with their hands..not as much with a typewriter, and certainly not an electronic keyboard.
I’m hopelessly old fashioned and an anachronism .
Ive admitted it here many times.
But I love people who write a letter, because, if its intentions are good, and sincere, their heart and soul comes through their fingers.
My dad was a great letter writer.
He was enormously thoughtful, funny as hell, observant and poetic, and innovative..he would even write song parodies “to the tune of”.
But his letters were mostly deeply loving and wise.
His letters were a happening to me every time I got one.
I still have my father’s letters and I look at them often.
My mom’s handwriting was something out of the Elizabethan Age, her flowery and bold and bouncy handwriting was a welcome sight,even in a thank you note.
Because her joy for life came through that fountain pen..and she loved to write with a fountain pen.
Her letters belonged in an art gallery or a museum.
I had to write a condolence card tonight because I thought it was by far the best way to write about sorrow and loss.
I wouldn’t dream of texting or even emailing a condolence. That doesn’t make me better or worse, more right or wrong, but to me it was the right thing to do.
I was struck with how writing a letter of love and empathy and goodness in longhand made me feel better…about me.
Maybe you should write a letter to someone you love, or respect or appreciate.
You’ll find that its freeing and it releases something in you that comes close to gratitude and faith in humanity.
Don’t wait till its a condolence letter.
Write a letter to someone.
Write two.
