I remember learning to write letters from my biological dad when I was around 8-9 years old. Of course there wasn't email back then--yes I'm dating myself-- all you young whipper-snappers may not remember a time when there were no computers and/or email. I told dad I wanted to write a letter to my mom (who was living on the other side of the country). So he sat me down, we grabbed paper and a pen and he started showing me the art of letter-writing.
Of course when on an LDS mission I wrote letters to my family, that was the standard and would have the occasional letter to other relatives and friends. If you don't know this already, missionaries crave this kind of attention and I think I tried to keep up with that after the two years with companions, friends and families, but then life really does get in the way of things and that just didn't happen no matter how good my intentions were.
Not to beat up on technology but I started wondering if anyone still writes letters? I admit that I miss this part of life and it may be part of why I LOVE sending Christmas Cards (which in fact I did see my dad sending to people way back when), I get to actually sit down and address an envelope, slap a stamp and send it to someone and I equally love getting those in return. I think that's why for a while I was into collecting post cards (yes, I'm not only old but a nerd as well--you can stop rolling your eyes now!)
I guess that may be a worthy pursuit for me. Maybe I'll have to think of a relative that I can dig out their address somewhere and that I can send a hand-written letter one of these days very soon. It is probably a dying art. Anyone else out there still writes letters? Want to be my non-email, non-cyber, hand-written-letters pen pal?
I used to write letters all the time before the dawn of email. I have copies of all the letters I wrote to my family while on my mission, which is a nice keepsake. I do miss writing letters, but I admit I'm lazy, and email is just so much more convenient (sometimes I'm not even on top of my emails). But I do have two friends without email and one in prison who doesn't currently have access to email, so I do write them, but I am not as regular about it as I ought to be. I fear I would make a terrible pen-pal now that email exists, but I do feel your pain. There is something really cool about writing, sending, and receiving actual letters.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder what our history will look like to our descendants as far as actual written documents go.
I write thank you notes by real mail. I also usually do an extremely long, detailed letter for the holidays. I didn't do it this year because I was VERY ill, and also it seemed like everything I wrote (I started one) was about my son. My daughter hasn't lived at home for five plus years. I've had the same job for twelve years. We've lived in the same house for fifteen years, blah, blah, blah... It's not like I have little children to report their growth spurts and report cards. I could have said to all my Mormon relatives... "Emily is in the third year of living in sin with her boyfriend near Chicago. He supports her. Good girl! Wish I could find a sugar daddy! Michael graduated from high school, turned eighteen, hasn't seen his father since, and resigned from the church as soon as he could. I followed his example and had my name taken off. So we're all happy and delighted with our lives. Hope you're doing just as well."
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