Isn't it a little sad that letter writing has become a rarity? So long to the handwritten words of friends and family. Now we usually just get a few words and a signature to a card.
Of course there are very good reasons for this-
1. We can actually read what it written now because most correspondence is typed.
2. We often use email which is so quick and can be written quickly and then immediately delivered.
3. Handwriting while taught in schools quickly is forgotten because of the requirements for reports and things to be typed on a computer.
4. Thoughts typed on a computer can be spell checked for us, and we can edit our thoughts before we send them out. A very nice thing for those of us (like myself) that have trouble forming clear thoughts on a page.
The computers are wonderful things and I am the first one to send a quick email and spell check my work. However I was reading about writing family history books and the scene described was of a person looking in her grandmother's attic in a chest and finding piles of old letters. The excitement that reading those letters gave provided a clearer picture of who her ancestors were. These days letters are rarely kept and emails are kept even less. Even if I kept all of my emails would they be of interest to anyone?
Occasionally I write to someone about what I have been doing but usually my emails are short and brief. Sometimes it occurs to me that I should print out those emails and put them in my seldom used journal- but that never seems to happen.
I know that I have some letters - mostly that I received while at school (especially during my freshman year) that I have kept and enjoy re-reading. How life changes when you are not looking. I wonder where they are...perhaps I will take some time to look for them today.
3 comments:
Do you want to archive your old e-mail? We can arrange that if you want. I strongly expect that the authors of those "interesting" letters would have found the letters distinctly uninteresting. The interest for the readers is to see what things were on your mind and what life was like back in '08. What I also find interesting about letters is the handwriting and any attempt to see into the personality of the individual.
Jonathan and I have all the letters we wrote to each other when he was in Spain. Most couples don't have that sort of thing, so those two boxes are really special to us.
When Gramma rotated the books around last summer, we included a letter with each one we sent on to Will, and Elena really liked the letters we got from Bridget, too.
It is funny. I think if I had to hand-write everything, I'd actually do a lot less writing, in general. I suppose that's why old letters seem so priceless, there aren't as many. I actually save many (but not all) of my e-mails. And the nice part of the blog is that I can save posts in a pdf format. It is the only way I scrapbook these days, unfortunately...or not so unfortunately. It certainly takes less time! I do keep a handwritten journal that I write in occasionally so that I do have a written record in my own handwriting. I think it is important to save that somewhere!
Your post got me thinking, though...my dad recently scanned all of my grandmother's recipes so that we'd all have a copy of them in her own handwriting. They're priceless! You'll have to check my latest post. Thanks for the inspiration on that one, Kim!
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