Still A Good Idea

My recent posting regarding writing skills touched many on and off line comments...all well expressed. I have discussed this with other professors and, as I mull over it more, I began thinking about the old way. You know what I mean (if you are 35 or older). There was a time when there was no world wide Web and no e mail. There were long distance calls, but they were expensive and basically for urgent communications. What we did back then was to write letters by hand, sometimes with a type writer (that's a computer without a computer, just a place to type directly onto paper).

Letter writing was an involved process and began with good writing skills. One had to be succinct or too many pages would be produced and postage would be higher. One had to be clear and use just the right adjectives and other words to convey exactly what needed to be said. Then there was addressing an envelope, finding a stamp and locating a mailbox into which the letter was dropped. Then you waited. It might take days for your letter to get there, more days until the receiver posted (in the mail) an answer and more days until it was delivered back to your home. Being such an involved happening, one didn't waste time writing about trivial things.

Taking the time it did, trivial things were left unsaid. More over, there wasn't the embarrassment of dashing off a note (to be later regretted) or hitting a "send" button before rational thinking took over. No, letters were for important matters of the heart and business.

Back then, the arrival of the post man was an important daily event. On those rare days when a letter arrived for just you it was carefully carried inside or to the swing on the front porch. Then there was a delicious delay while the envelope was examined and you let the joy of receiving mail wash over you. Finally, and carefully, the enveloped was opened, the envelope carefully set aside and the letter removed and carefully read. Not once, but many times. The hand written message you held was the most personal of communications. It was important and had been written carefully...just for you. Those were the days.

Those were the days when you mailed in your quarter with some cereal box tops and waited, it seemed for ever, until your secret decoder ring came by return mail. The process often took weeks and was nothing like on line shopping. It was heavenly torture.

Now we have pixels, abbreviations and so much dribble going back and forth that we skim over or just delete most of what's coming to us. Some of us still love the written word or an idea well expressed. If you've read to this point, you just might be one of us.

Paddle safe...

DS