MAIL!

I got a letter! From a real person! And I stopped what I was doing, sat down and opened it. For just those few minutes, I fell into someone else’s world. The slant of the words, the loops and whorls of penmanship, I was touching something she made - just for me.

Emails speed up the communication. They lie in a long line of other messages that demand my attention. Even when they take up the whole screen, I know that once that note is closed other messages will wave and call. My aunt prints out her emails in order to give them the personal attention they deserve.

Emails are not letters.

But a letter! In an envelope! My surroundings actually drop away. I can’t read a letter and unload the dishwasher - as I can when I am talking on the phone. With a letter in my hand - and in my sight - I don’t look around and notice Things That Need To Be Done.

Texts? I think of texts as Need To Know Quickie Notes. They ask questions. They call for attention. “What time…?” “Give me a call…” “Thinking of you. Let’s talk later…” “Could you?…”

Texts are not letters.

Video calls connect me to people far away. I love seeing their faces and hearing their voices. But just like actual meetings, video calls end, and unless we record every single one, we have only our memories as souvenirs.

Video calls are not letters.

This letter? I can read it again and again. I can smile as the words race across the paper. I can imagine my sister’s desk. She might have written it there - or at the table in the kitchen, or even sitting in her yard under her orange tree.

I got a letter! and it lifted up this hot summer day - like a scented breeze from somewhere faraway!  I got a letter and because I did, I am going to take the time to write a letter- or two - right now.