Somewhere Along the Way

Be sure you treasure them–those actual letters hand-written on paper by a loved one–because getting letters the old-fashioned way in a metal mailbox is getting to be a thing of the past. We’ve lost the appreciation of hand-written greetings somewhere along the way.

I used to get personal mail delivered by our mail carrrier–lovely birthday cards, personal greetings, not so long ago. I still get the birthday cards and let me tell you, I treasure them. But personal letters are a rarity.

I have a niece who makes the real, paper held-in-hand cards. They are a work of art–cards to celebrate birthdays, offer sympathy, or just to let the recipient know she’s thought of. I’m hoping that trend comes back and once again we take time to write, address, and send a personal message.

Letters are as good as journals for recording family history or day to day happenings. I’m a Civil War buff and I like reading letters or journals of an event as witnessed by a person who was there, a first-person account.

Now, we send messages via internet. Emails and postings all have the same sort of writing–typewritten. Nothing personal about them. Well, the message may be personal, but somehow, reading those words on a computer screen just isn’t the same as holding a letter in my hands.

This is a hurry-up world. We have so much to do and so little time in which to do it. I thought technology would save us time and effort Or was that only a rumor? We’ve gained much but we’ve also lost the personal touch and personal communication somewhere along the way.