The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Like almost every woman in the modernized world, I have watched Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth) at least 1,000 times.

A cornerstone of the story is letter writing. There are amazing letters written between the characters, particularly the long and descriptive letter written by Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet. The letters are pivotal to the plot.

It got me thinking about letters, and how what was once an important aspect of society has become a lost art. In fact, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I would say that the art of writing – quickly – is becoming a thing of the past. This is not o.k. The ability to communicate with language is part of what makes us human.

Even for paNOW, we have the paLIVE chat box and comments section, but do not often have letters. A letter is a great opportunity to fully express your opinion on any number of issues and to put your name to your thoughts. The Letter to the Editor had once been a staple of any news publication, including magazines.

Those who pursue genealogy look to the past to find answers to their present identity. We are, after all, a culmination of our ancestry and their experience. Any genealogist knows it is through letters that we learn the real lives, the true feelings of the past.

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How will future generations know about us?

We don’t write letters. Will my great grandchildren learn about who I am, how I have felt through my blog or through my Facebook entries – or will those writings be long extinct – and will that make the person I have been disappear for future generations?

I challenge us all to write more letters. Within the pages of a handwritten letter, you may find out things about yourself. In the process of expressing yourself, you sort out thoughts and feelings and even your beliefs. The process of writing letters, columns, stories …. makes you examine the person you are at a particular point in time in a way that is not possible in the constant short blurbs and “like” buttons of today’s modern communication system.

I love Twitter and Facebook and those are great tools of communication.

But they are fleeting. They are dandelion fluff in the wind. They are expressed and then they are gone. The notes in these medium forms are not usually self-examining. They do not provide the writer the opportunity to express their thoughts and then work through their belief systems to justify what they have just written.

And sure, there are blogs. But in 10 years where will that information be? It will be stored in the world wide web universe … somewhere, forgotten likely.

I do not write letters myself. I have a daily journal – on my phone app.

I am going today to get a beautiful pen and paper. If you know me, expect a letter – in the mail – with a pretty stamp.

You can Facebook me your mailing address.

And now I have to resist the urge to add LOL with a : ). Oh, I just did it.