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I’ll admit it, I laughed. I witnessed a 19 year old recently presented with a document to sign and he hesitated before struggling to print his name. There wasn’t a signature. In fact, this bright young man confessed that he could neither read nor write cursive and hadn’t found the need to develop a signature all his own. This scenario played out in the same week that I uncovered an old box, a treasure chest of sorts. In it were keepsake letters sent to me nearly 40 years ago. I could immediately identify the writer by the handwriting style. I sat down and re-read a few of those that caught my attention for whatever reason. Two were from friends of mine still, most were from family. Each contained handwritten pages with evidence of self-review as edits were marginally notated. Many had recounted a story they knew I would enjoy. These letters were then placed in an envelope and mailed to me across the country, taking what was probably most of a week to get there. If the authors were a married couple, like my grandparents, you could tell that whomever went second read what the first one had to share, struggling perhaps to find something new to report. What hit me most about all these mementos was the time it took to sit down and actually write and re-read them to make sure they reflected exactly what they wanted to say before sealing the envelope. There is the additional time for me as the recipient to read them and respond in due course, keeping the dialog going. Funny, some referenced phone calls in those letters which have long since forgotten. What have we done with all that time that we used to invest in these activities? Perhaps, the most important gift we can give another is our time – and nothing demonstrates that more readily than a handwritten letter, note or card. A card has that added impact in that you actually have to take time out to shop for one and read several to find just the right one for the occasion and the recipient. That is, if we don’t cheat and rely entirely on Hallmark’s sentiment to say it for us. Writing letters requires us to slow down and be intentional and thoughtful. In that space we are letting another know that they are special. Admit it - we all feel that way when we rifle through our mail and find a card or an envelope with our handwritten name on it. We look for them around holidays or our birthdays, saddened a bit that these days there just are so few, even as we’ve already read the text messages, tweets and emojis that sent us best wishes. To get something personal like this in the mail unexpectedly is a joy. We feel recognized, appreciated and valued. Handwritten letters have impact and evoke an emotional response that emails or texts can never replace. What we’ve gained in efficiency and expediency with these media, we’ve lost in empathy and thoughtfulness. Most of us don’t even read over the emails we’ve hastily typed before hitting the send button. Texts are mostly dictated now making it Siri’s responsibility to interpret correctly and translate that to type. They are quick but can be sloppy. We just expect the reader to forgive us, satisfied that we quickly (and most likely distractedly) dashed something off. As with all gifts we give, the more they reflect something we know about the recipient or a memory of something we’ve shared together, the better they are received and valued. Handwritten letters or notes, too, are gifts of our thoughts and our time. I encourage you to go sit down and write to someone you are thinking about right now. And, “put a stamp on it”, as my father would wryly remind me noting that, as a retired postal employee, it was helping his pension. |