When was the last time you wrote a REAL letter?
Fellow Chaps:
Today I decided to go ahead and do it. I broke the unwritten law that claims that, because of email, SMS, MSN, Skype, the telephone, the cell phone and so many other stuff that help you comunicate, letter writing is out of fashion and legaly dead... But I think otherwise. I believe that a letter is the second best way to comunicate with someone, the first being a face to face conversarion. Sure, email is practical and fast. And I use it a lot. In fact, I use it so much that it is easier to reach me by email than on my phone... That, I fool you not, is a fact.
But the letter is so much nicer. It is a physical thing. It's paper, ink, and time that you receive when the postman delivers a letter. The person who wrote to you spent time, dedication and cerebral energies to write to you.
It's a thing of beaty, the letter... I cannot remember the last letter I received in the mail. But I remember the last one I wrote (before today): it was to my girlfriend when I was in Germany attending a Summer composition course with the late Karlheinz Stockhausen (a composer).
So today was, indeed, the day. I forgot all about fancy letter paper and nice fragrant envelopes... nevermind that. That is just flowers and ribbons. The main event is inside: the letter itself. The paper is important, but the most important thing is what you wrote on it and the fact that you wrote it. In the late afternoon, after thinking that I must get myself some fancy paper I said "ná!", picked up my pen and some plain white paper and started writing until I fainted with writer's cramp! I wrote (long...) letters to my Girlfriend (who happens to live in the flat above mine...), to three of my best friends (one of them is my flat mate), to my Brother and to my Mother. Then I ran out of envelopes and stamps... It felt amazingly good.
Letter writing is becoming a lost art, unfortunately. And by loosing this art we will loose much more than that. We risk loosing many social behaviours, we risk loosing the hability to address someone with natural poise, we risk loosing the hability to comunicate in an elegant way. Furthermore we will loose the possibility to comunicate without interruptions and to be heard and understood in a complete way. You see, Saint Paul wrote letters (a lot, I reckon...) to the Corinthians. You never heard the priest say "Email of Saint Paul to the Corinthians!", now did you?! If you have, PM me and request my address so you can send me a capsule of cianide, please...
Now, when was the last time you took the time off your busy schedule and wrote a letter, a propper letter?
I urge everybody to do so. We must resurect the art of letter writing as we are resurecting the art of shaving with a straight razor... because email is a nice new cartridge on a Mach 3 and a letter is a stunning little Shumate 5/8 spike point with faux-tortoise scales.
