You've Got Handwritten Mail

I heard on the news tonight that, on average, a person receives a handwritten letter in the mail once every 7 weeks. I can attest to the fact that I certainly don't meet that average. A handwritten letter is incredibly rare around here. Take away some cards I recently received in the mail for my birthday and I can't remember the last letter or card I received.

I remember shortly after high school I had a number of friends move away for various reasons and we used to write letters and send postcards to one another. Granted, we were all guys so it wasn't like we did it a lot but it was at least consistent. Then email happened and the pencil and paper collected dust.

It's kind of a shame really. There's just something about a handwritten letter. I kind of miss it.  Even something as simple as the sound of a pen or pencil scratching away on a piece of paper is much more interesting and authentic than the click-clacking of a keyboard. And if you really get in to it, there's an endless array of stationery and writing utensils to choose from. Heck you could go old school and get yourself a fountain pen and take handwritten letters to a whole different level. Find yourself some parchment and you're really hardcore.

Now, I'm not advocating the parchment and quill approach, after all we have emails to respond to and facebook updates to make (at least some people do) but I don't think writing a letter every now and again is such a bad idea. Of course if you send one of your friends a letter out of the blue they may think you've gone nutty but I bet if you keep it up they'll actually really look forward to it. Even if you are facebook friends and they already know that you went to Starbucks 6 times last week because you updated your status every time you were there.  I don't know, maybe we should give it a try. In fact if you want a handwritten letter just email me your address and I'll send you one. I say why not. Even if you don't want a handwritten letter, if you know somebody who would appreciate it I'll send them one!

Maybe I'll get to sharpen those pencils and dig out some of that old stationery.