A piece in the Chicago Tribune inspired me today. The author, Peter Schwartz, wrote: In the past month, I’ve returned to a practice and a habit that the human community, until recently, had shared for hundreds of years: writing letters.
He underlines that this is a recent change in his means of corresponding, and has become his personal choice. “I have no expectations that anyone will or should respond. These are messages in a bottle, my small effort to stand against the digital degradation of human communication and human bonds. He then provides a brief history…“People have corresponded with each other using letters since the 13th century…We can trace the origins of the postal system in the United States to the establishment of the first post office at a Boston tavern in 1639. Benjamin Franklin — himself a prolific letter writer — served for nearly 40 years as the postmaster for Philadelphia and then for the Colonies and the new nation.”
WHEN WE WERE KIDS
Many of us remember Franklin from the often boring American history books we read at the primary and secondary levels. But it is also our HISTORY, our STORY. As kids, we were encouraged to WRITE thank you notes to relatives after receiving a birthday gift. Today? The thank you is often over the phone—that works. I love the human voice, eager to deliver a thank you before hurrying away to baseball or homework. But it does underline how we’ve gotten away from writing…writing anything…a letter, even a paragraph.
Do some of us still consider writing a standard note card with I love you added on? How about a phone call, so we share human voices and then sidetrack to other topics? But instead, we often settle with using a text emoji. I admit…I do that too.
WHY WRITE A NOTE??
We no longer have thank you notes in a desk drawer; we don’t have postage stamps; or is it that we don’t trust our mail delivery person??
I think it might be that we have no idea where the closest mail drop box is. Actually in our neighborhood we have two, both walking distance from our house. That’s the Chicago way.
In Iowa, the post-office was often inside the local grocery store! Awesome.
In Southern California, they utilize stationary stores (there were 2 near us; one I could walk to; one I would have to drive). These stores would wrap, weigh and ship your gifts, sell you stamps, and help you apply and receive a passport. If you just needed to ship or mail, you could drive to the bigger Post Office, but the lines were long. Since the days of the Pony Express, Americans like it quick and easy. But the Chicago post office near us is kinda hit and miss…parking is difficult, and once again you might have to wait a long time.
PETER SCHWARTZ writes: It’s weird to now remember that publishers used to routinely collect and publish the letters or correspondence of famous people. When I was a teenager, I read the letters of E.B. White, author of “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little.” White lived on the coast of Maine across the water from the cabin my parents built in the 1970s. It made sense to my teenage mind that White lived nearby. I had read his letters, and his books, of course. I therefore felt as if I personally knew him.
Have you ever read a book of letters?
SCHWARTZ: FINAL THOUGHTS
There is another value to paper letters, because the time it takes to send and receive letters honors the space we need for meaningful communication. It rewards patience. The rich pleasure of receiving a letter partly emerges in the waiting…the act of receiving, reading a letter — the anticipation one feels seeing the envelope, then opening it, and the awareness of one’s surroundings, one’s feelings and own physicality while reading it. LOVE LETTERS, ANYONE?
WHEN YOU CAN’T BE THERE
When my friend Luke was diagnosed with cancer, I began writing him letters. He was grateful, told me he enjoyed the letters, so I kept it up. I wrote many letters to Luke while he was fighting for his life.
Weeks before his death, our church “roasted” him at his request. But he was so ill, he left the festivities early. Thus I sent him a copy of my speech: Luke’s got a son he calls Little Luke. That’s in juxtaposition to Big Luke, Gigantic Luke–Luke the big lover, the big eater (he orders double and dessert too) the big dancer–but truly, the guy with the great big heart. I looked it up, the name Luke means light. Luke, you are a light in all of our lives, no, I take that back, a bright, powerful flashbulb–you dazzle us.
Luke read this an hour before he died. That was a gift to me, a gift of the highest kind.
Peter Schwartz is right: KEEP SOME NOTE CARDS AND STAMPS IN YOUR DESK; WRITE SOMEONE A NOTE, YOU WON’T REGRET.
10 Responses
Dear Beth, This column is one of the nicest reminders for me. I do still occasionally write a note to my friends and loved ones. However, you have inspired me to continue and I will do this more often. Thank you so much! Carol
Hi Carol, THANK YOU FOR READING. You are such a wonderful friend, Beth
How poignant when these letters come at the end of a person’s life. I’d love to read the letters of famous writers. They’d be fascinating.
Totally agree….but there is so much to read. But I am sure there are collections of letters that would follow a plot, so to speak.
Thanks for your comment, Beth
I remember writing letters daily when my cousin was oversees back when I was in high school. Now, I can’t remember the last time I sat down and wrote a letter.
I’m sure those letters meant much to your cousin. I did the same with a penal who lived in France. So sorry that we lost touch.
She was in love with Audrey Hepburn and wanted magazine clips of her photos. LOL Beth
When we were in college, my now-husband and I were separated by some 40 miles during summer breaks. What did we do? Write each other! I would run to the mailbox with such eagerness, hoping to find a letter from him. I still have those letters, too (over 50 years later). One of my aunts, who passed away in 2003, was the last person I regularly wrote to. Now, I have a son in his 30’s who texts and doesn’t even email. If we are to call him we have to text first. How can you treasure a text? How do you preserve it for your children? What will happen to the study of history if the Internet and other electronic communications is suddenly wiped out? I agree with so much of your post and yet, I rarely write. Sadly, email and texting is so much easier and immediate.
Oh, I love this, Alana. It was the same for me and my husband who took the time to write to me. Alas, all those
letters were lost when our basement in a suburb of Chicago flooded. But I those letters meant so much, and of course I
always wrote him back.. maybe even before he wrote me back! Thanks so much for reading.
Beth
This blog on letters is so timely for me. My brother passed away last year and his best friend from grammar school on sent me all the letters that he received from our whole family when he was in Viet Nam. These went back to 1969. He had saved all of them! What a treasure to reread these messages of caring from everyone from my mother to my little sister who was only 8 I think. I had saved the letters he sent back also, one was written on a napkin.
Karen, thank you so much for joining the blog and for writing about your brother. Wow, those letters are a treasure. So
glad that he saved them. I am sure you remember Greg Moran, he was in our class, and after high school at Mendel he went
into the service, Navy, I believe. Lonely, we exchanged letters for a while…he lived on Wood Street right across from me
and we walked to school together for years. But when our basement in Homewood flooded, all those letters were lost…as well
as the ones John wrote me in college. That is life. I have lost track of Greg who moved to California, but I have many memories…the oldest stay the longest. Beth