Hand-written letters

Last week, I got a hand-written letter in the mail from my 22-year-old cousin, Megan. It was two pages (front and back) of beautifully formed words on unlined paper, full of news of her activities, the changing seasons, and what sort of baking she'd done recently. (Yes, baking.) As I read the letter, I got to thinking: who DOES this anymore? Not just the hand-written part, though that in-and-of-itself is quite amazing. But who writes letters at all anymore? Short notes, perhaps. E-mails, sure. Blog posts, yeah. (Don't even get me started on "Tweets.") But letters? Personal, news-filled, well-formed letters? Hardly anyone I know.

As I sat down to write her back in-kind, I remembered how Grandma Mary Jean would sit at the kitchen counter with her spiral lined notepad and ball-point pen, scrawling quick letters to friends and family. She seemed to spend no more than 5 minutes on the task, but non-the-less, her letters were always full of garden and project updates; recent visits made, received, or planned; family health, job, and education news; and, of course, weather conditions. Like an informal family newsletter, Grandma's letters kept everyone up-to-date on the important things in their lives.

Without my realizing it, my letter back to Megan took a similar path that Grandma's letters used to. The simple act of putting pen to paper seemed to inspire garden updates, travel plans, and weather observations, things I don't often share in detail over e-mail.

Do you ever write or receive actual letters? How is your experience with them the same or different than other forms of written communication?