The Written Word

As I lie here I think about modern technology. Communication has come so far along, yet digressed so quickly. To have instantaneous conversation at your fingertips is altogether commonplace nowadays. Sending a facebook message, a text, or a tweet is the fastest form. Writing an e-mail and skyping is simple and easy, lightning fast and unsophisticated. Simply click a button and “you’ve got mail.”

I find it difficult to imagine that the only form of long distance communication one had at one point in time was that of a letter. To think that people waited months for a response to a single letter! How they cherished those words so much is astounding compared to the messages sent and received today. They valued a single written communication much more highly than any of us in the Western first world countries do now.

I think that we forget sometimes that things we write to each other are important.  I think we forget that we as people are important and sometimes taking the time to write something down on paper can be a special and surprising reminder of just how much we care.

I myself have received only one paper and ink letter in my lifetime. I remember it’s message better than any one of the thousands of e-mails I’ve received. I cherish it more than the hundreds of facebook messages. It is more real to me than any of these electronic words I read on my screen. To hold a letter in your hand, knowing that someone took the time to write it out and mail it to you just makes you feel special somehow. It’s an “old fashioned” gesture, but one that in my little world is exceptionally profound.