Texts, emails, tweets, Facebook messages, snapchats, pings, letters, pokes, iMessage - which one doesn't belong? It doesn't take an SAT whiz to figure this one out. Letters don't seem to fit into our modern landscape of communication.
This is an unfortunate side effect of our efficient, economic, environmentally-friendly new system of email and instant messaging. Letters are an intensely personal and cathartic way to develop and deepen relationships. It doesn't matter if you're writing to your sister on the other side of the country or to the cutie in organic chemistry. Sitting down and putting pen to paper is the next best thing to a face-to-face conversation.
Not only does writing down your thoughts help organize and clarify how you want to say something, it also helps you understand what you are trying to say. People talk about how they sometimes compose angry emails to vent. That annoyance doesn't seem so important once you actually see your complaint composed on paper. Letters force us to really consider what we are putting into words. Typed, instant messages are more likely to be regretted. Letters provide the same release without the danger of the "send" button accidentally clicked. They can be revised, restructured and reworded to fit the message you're trying to send.
Perhaps the most important part about writing letters is the stationery. Letters give people the excuses to obsess over stores like Papyrus and Hallmark. Calligraphy pens and cardstock letterheads beckon like catnip. Sending a letter lets your personalize your signature in more ways than one.
Letters are also a wonderful form of memorabilia, a record for you to look back on. When you're feeling sentimental, what sounds more appealing: scrolling through a litany of texts and abbreviations on a tiny screen, or keeping important letters to frame on your wall or tucked into your journal? Most Notre Dame students probably have their acceptance letters still tacked on their bulletin boards. Cards from grandparents, love letters from deceased spouses and notes scrawled by a marker-wielding kindergartener decorate refrigerators and living room walls. When we're dead and gone, will our children spend hours ticking through tweets to figure our what their parents were like? Or will they have physical heirlooms of our intellect, sentiment and personality?
Is there any delight greater than waiting for a letter? The delayed gratification increases the importance of the message and makes it more of a gift. When someone opens their mailbox to find a letter, they usually perk up and think, "I wonder who it's from?" When someone notices they have yet another email in their inbox, they usually groan and think, "Why do these people keep bothering me?" Envelopes even look like gifts. Here's a letter, wrapped, signed, sealed, delivered and all just for you.
So here's a little lesson about writing a letter, for those of you have never trotted to Hammes-Mowbray to buy postage stamps. When you're trying to make a romantic gesture, you don't shoot your significant other an e-card. You don't send a potential employer a text, "Hey! Thanx 4 the gr8 interview!" While formal letters are something of a societal antique (alas!) there's something classy, sophisticated and memorable about a composition. So, take a minute and jot down a note to your mom, your dad, your boyfriend, your roommate, your grandparent, your mentor or anyone who has been on your mind. If you're abroad, make everyone on campus jealous and send a postcard from your latest day trip. Just remember this: Writing a letter breaks your message away from the mundane blitzkrieg of electronic overload and shows that you are far more mature, considerate and classy than the lucky recipient of your letter ever imagined.
Contact Meghan Thomassen at
mthomass@nd.edu
The views in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
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