Meryl's Notes Blog
Things wordy, geeky, and webbyWriting Letters… by Hand
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 6:48 AM | 8 commentsFunny that I talked about snail mail and writing letters yesterday as I came across this article from the Orlando Sentinel. Yes, I noticed the typo in “pen pal” and captured it. This article comes from The New York Times and caught my eye for two reasons: handwritten letters (not the alphabet kind) and Professor Naomi Baron. I attended American University where she was the associate dean for undergraduate affairs during my time there.
I value handwritten notes and use every time I need to thank someone. I won’t resort to email for such things as the person took the time to do whatever I’m thanking him for. So I believe I should also take a few minutes to put in the effort of writing a nice thank you note. At the end of the year in 2006, I wrote a handwritten note to every client, and plan to do the same this year.
I’ve got piles of letters in a safety box from when Paul and I were dating and engaged. He and I were separated by the miles for about nine months as I finished a year in college at TCU while he was in Washington, D.C. working. I transferred to American University and finished college there.
My daughter is currently away at camp for over three weeks. I write her an email almost every day (unfortunately she can’t write me emails, only letters - gasp!), but I also write her a letter with a pen in my left hand instead of fingers on a typewriter. There’s just something about getting a handwritten letter in the mail that makes a note more special.
My kids whine every time I make them write thank you notes for birthday presents and other gifts. I remember not liking to do that as a kid, but not to the degree they do. My daughter had a small birthday party this year with a few friends. She said she thanked each one in person as she opened her gifts. I told her she still needs to write thank you notes because they (or rather their parents) took the time to find the gift and their parents need to know she acknowledged the gift.
Every year, I write my kids a letter on their birthdays. The first few years, I did it by hand. Then in the past couple of years (after #3 arrived), I find I’m resorting to the computer as the letters were long and my time to write the letters shrunk. I decided it was more important to get the letter written for that birthday rather than keep postponing until I found time to write it… five years later. I plan to do them in handwriting again whenever I get the chance — but whatever I do, I won’t miss a birthday letter.
I received some amazing letters from family and friends when I got married. I still have those letters. It’s not often we see a meaningful handwritten note, so I keep them whenever I receive one. I’ve got a few greeting cards from Paul as he took the time to write thoughtful and sweet notes. Since we’re together most of the time, we don’t get an opportunity to write each other letters like we did before I moved to D.C.
My daughter is going to write a lot of thank you notes come February of next year. Let’s hope she doesn’t put up much of a battle as I have enough challenges trying to plan the special event.
Let’s keep handwritten letter writing alive even if it means writing a note in a greeting card rather than using stationery. I loved the letters my mom wrote to me while I was at camp and can still remember what the stationery looked like. Sadly, I’ve been using yellow ruled paper in writing my daughter. Tell you what. I’ll get out the nice stationery and write her a real letter today.
Update: Shame on me for forgetting to mention that I’ve kept a handwritten journal since 1989. My handwriting style hasn’t improved and even filling books with handwriting … it still doesn’t take much handwriting before my southpaw aches. The price we pay for using keyboards.
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8 comments
I love this post! My mother writes me letters but she types them. She wrote me something by hand and I’ll stash it for a keepsake.
I love handwritten notes. There is something about pausing to think about what to write ahead of time, rather than typing and erasing….
And — it is much better than store-bought greetings. Uck.
I’ll refer to this post in my writings…
Cheers.
Am I missing something? I thought “Pen Pall” was deliberate.
You’re right, Roxann. I looked up “pall” in the dictionary and I can see it fits. I misinterpreted the meaning of “pall.”
-blush-
Here’s another article on the dying art of letter writing.
Talking To Strangers loves hand-written letters, and is working to promote and embrace it! Please visit our blog!
http://talking-2-strangers.blogspot.com/
[...] Since letter writing is becoming a rarity thanks to email, computers, and instant messaging, cursive writing also suffers from lack of use. The Dallas Morning News (here are the readers’ letters to the editor regarding the topic) reports that cursive writing practice has lost its importance. Students still learn cursive in third grade and are required to follow the rules for writing each letter correctly, but they’re not spending as much time in perfecting the writing as in the past — just enough to know it. [...]
I have kept a handwritten journal for over twenty years, while in boot camp I wrote regularly to my then fiancé, and as a child the handwritten postcards (there was no other kind then) that my Nana received from her lifelong friends were a fascination. Only recently have I attempted to share my own private practice and revive it among my close friends whom all, save one, live on the other side of the country. A set of picture postcards of personal photographs on archival paper sent to all as holiday gifts will hopefully be the means for them to begin a return to the carefully considered handwritten word. Even as I was preparing to send the postcard set out for the holidays one dear friend e-mailed me to say she missed old-fashioned letter writing and wished to continue to stay in touch “by hand”.
As children grow up with computers in schools, at home, in libraries, and elsewhere it is up to those of use who remember a time before word processors and e-mail to hand down a tradition that is being taken for granted and silently dying. The last generations to be born before the personal computer were not prepared to face the possible demise of handwritten correspondence because such a possibility is only now being recognized; perhaps too late but hopefully not. The handwritten word is not something any society can afford to lose. It is the lowest common denominator for any civilization. Even as we surrounded ourselves with technology it is our ability to communicate with the written word, not typed or processed, but written that insures our ability to do more than simply survive. When all else has faded, decayed, or been destroyed it will be civilization’s ability to communicate with the written word that will insure its ability to thrive.
It is nothing short of magic that with only ink, paper, and able mind we can create something out of nothing; and in our ability to create we glimpse the power of our Gods in ourselves. For now, we need only instill in our young charges a desire to see their words flow from their impressionable minds onto paper using their only their hands, a pen, and an inkwell.
Dear Meryl
My wife Julia and I, brazilians, used to live in Florida for some years. We got the beginning of the e-mail fascination.
Back to Brazil we started to help poor girls of our city. One ideia that came up was to get an e-mail letter to a loved one, from the busy people of the world, transcript it to a handwritten letter and MAIL it to them. It is working slowly
and making people happy.
Interesting to read your article.
Thanks and have a great day!
Carlos & Julia
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