I have now attained the true art of letter writing, which, we are
always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same
person by word of mouth; I have been talking to you almost as fast as I could
write the whole of this letter.
Jane Austen to her
sister, Cassandra
Beginning in August, there will be no Saturday mail
delivery, and while I absolutely understand the fiscal necessity of such a
move, I will still miss it. I know
that everyone doesn’t share my sentiment.
Many people will be glad to not receive bills, ads, or other pieces of
“junk” mail that goes right from the mailbox to the garbage can. And while I won’t miss those
things either, I am ever hopeful that the mail will bring me something I almost
never get…a real piece of correspondence in the form of a letter, a card, or a
written invitation.
There was a time when letter writing was a real art form and
writing letters was a daily task. When I was a girl, my grandmother and I would send letters back and
forth every day through my grandfather (who was the principal of my elementary
school). I could hardly wait to
get my hands on that note and spent lots of time deciding what I was going to
write to her. We talked
about what we were doing, what we had for dinner, and mostly how we couldn’t
wait until Friday when I would come home with my grandfather and spend the
weekend with them.
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| (Our cards from this past year.) |
In college I lived to go to the mailbox each day and begged
my family and friends to send me letters.
And a big part of why I think I love Christmas so much is the chance to
send and receive cards…something is in that mailbox almost every day in
December.
It is cold tonight, but the thought of you so warm, that I sit by it as
a fireside, and am never cold any more.
I love to write to you- it gives my heart a holiday and sets the bells
to ringing.
Emily Dickinson
My love of letters also extends to the books I read, and I
often buy collections of letters that people have written to one another, or
fiction books that are made up of correspondence
between the characters.
I have lots of old letters around my house. This one is a sweet note my great-grandmother wrote to my grandmother letting her know that if anything should
happen to her, she wanted to be sure that I got her little TV set.
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| (Annie was a big letter writer, too.) |
While I’m sure that e-mails, text messages, and instant
messaging are here to stay, I’ll
remain ever hopeful that I’ll reach into that mailbox and pull out a real card
or letter…even though it will no longer be happening on Saturday.
All the best,
Kelly
