I Love Letters, ....the Old kind.

The art of paper-letter-writing still exists!!!

I received a letter from a new friend in Pennsylvania. The Mennonite
woman who so graciously spent time answering my questions and showing
us her farm wrote me! I sent her a Thank-You card, half expecting her
not to respond since we were so vastly different...our new car, worldly clothing and short hair....uncovered even! But, to my surprise she responded very quickly!


I miss the old days when things were more personal. Our new
technologies have definitely made some things easier...but I think it's
allowed us to be less intimate with people. I admit sometimes it's nice
to call someone back later if you know they've called, and it's
very fun getting email...real email - not the forwards. It's also nice
that we have so much information at our fingertips and can find
anything we want...and don't want via the net. But how much is being
lost when we have machines that do our work? Granted sometimes in a
pinch it's nice to have, but over all if we weren't so rushed all the
time...would it matter? And how many of those "pinches" would happen?

I remember when a friend's family had purchased the latest high-tech gadget
"The Answering Machine". I was about 10 when these first machines were
the latest rage. I remember calling and calling to ask her to come play
because all though we lived a street apart, I couldn't walk to her
house. Most of the time when I'd call I'd get the answering machine
since her parents screened calls. At that time it was frustrating because I couldn't get a live person to answer my little question. However now, how many times do we think..., "Ohhhh, I hope a machine picks up because I don't want to talk!" and then much to our disappointment "a REAL voice" answers.

Or what about the Internet? It can certainly be a tool for destruction, but for the sake of my point I'm not going to address that. The Internet
is the gateway to the world. When we used to go to the library to find
information, we now type in a question...never mind if it's spelled
right, and there we are, usually more answers than we need. While
this is nice if you are looking up your health concerns at 3:00a.m.,
for the most part it actually robs us of our people skills and learning
processes.

For example, when we go to the library we have to speak in a lower tone, greet our librarian, and fellow patrons. Not to mention we have to learn how to use the library, and to look something up it generally has to have correct spelling, etc. The Internet on the other hand is able to be used by the most uneducated and demands no people skills whatsoever to find what you need.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy this avenue of information and in this blog's case recreation, but I think that beyond the obvious perils, there is more that is lost like commradory and refining social behaviors of people, as well as not demanding a certain level of education. I believe one will rise or be lowered to the
standards which are placed upon them.

As for the answering machine...I enjoy the aspect of seeing who has called when I was gone and being able to call most of them back. I also have to say that yes, I too am guilty of just not wanting to get the phone, regardless of who is calling...but for the most part I do try to still answer and speak with the caller.

And before this gets too lengthy, I want to say how much I love and long for the old fashioned pen and paper. I love to write letters and I love to read them. I would much rather after all is quiet in the house, sit in an overstuffed chair, lamp lit, drinking my tea or coffee reading the latest happenings, joys and concerns of a close friend, then to try to sit at our computer with the monitor blazing in my face, hearing the clacking of my keys, just to be denied access to my e-mail after typing the wrong letter. I also would rather hold the paper that they held and feel closer to them, than to read an email that has common fonts, colors, and script as any other form of communication over the computer.

For many the Internet has opened up a world of convenience and speed, yet it lacks the personality of special stationary chosen by a friend; the scents of their home; and maybe even a tear drop or two shed in a most intimate time (knowing a friend will sympathize, pray, and care).

Although I may not write letters often, I do want to try to keep alive such an old form of communication. Everyone in my family knows that my Great-Grandmother loves to get letters and write them too. I never understood why it was so special, I loved getting that surprise letter in the mail, but didn't grasp the intimacy that a letter brings until now. After receiving my prized letter from my new found penpal, I vow to write less emails, unless absolutely necessary, and open up more of myself in a way that's being lost in our society. Infact, I'm leaving the computer for now...I have some beautiful cards that I've picked up and a great steady pen. I'm going to write my great-grandmother who will be as excited to get my letter as I was my new friend from Pennsylvania.

To the Pen & Paper! Hooray!