Thursday, June 16, 2016

Letter Writing - Once Upon a Time


Once upon a time, people wrote letters. I first started writing them when I left home at 18. I wrote about once every 4-6 weeks to mom and dad about how things were going in school. I was several states away. They were not long. They were not profound. They just made me pause for a moment and reflect upon what I was doing at school and my appreciation for family.

Yes, I actually sat down at a desk, took up a pen and paper, and wrote a letter.

Today, I might text, tweet, or email. I might even telephone the person.

At one time, writing letters was an even art. One might even express profound thoughts in letters. Here is how two people reflect upon letter writing.   

"Sending a letter is the next best thing to showing up personally at someone's door. Ink from your pen touches the stationary, your fingers touch the paper, your saliva seals the envelope. Something tangible from your world travels through machines and hands, and deposits itself in another's mailbox. Your letter is then carried inside as an invited guest. The paper that was sitting on your desk, now sits on another's. The recipient handles the paper that you handled. Letters create a connection that modern, impersonal forms of communication will never approach.[1] 

A good handwritten letter is a creative act, and not just because it is a visual and tactile pleasure. It is a deliberate act of exposure, a form of vulnerability, because handwriting opens a window on the soul in a way that cyber communication can never do. You savor their arrival and later take care to place them in a box for safe keeping.[2] 

            All of this made me think of popular songs that revolve around writing letters, such as "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," "A Soldier's Last Letter," "Please, Mr. Postman," "P.S. I Love You".

            Letters can make changes.

            Charles Schulz created a character, Charlotte Braun, for his Peanuts cartoon. A letter led him to kill her, literally, in the comic strip.

            Annie Oakley wrote to President McKinley to offer herself and 50 other female sharpshooters for use in the Spanish-American War.

            A letter to Ian Fleming re-armed James Bond from a .25 caliber Beretta to a Walther PPK and created the new character, Q.

            Message in a Bottle was about a letter discovered and a search ensuing that led to a romance between the two lead characters.

            Among the more famous sets of correspondence is between John Adams and his wife Abigail. In one letter, she urged him to allow women greater voice in the governing of the country.

            Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, mentioning the possibility of a new weapon that would involve a nuclear chain reaction.

I have been thinking of the letters of Paul. These letters changed Christianity. Today, some scholars would argue in a negative way, but I would dissent from that view. His letters would influence the way the churches would move into the Gentile world with the good news regarding Jesus Christ.

            I am pausing for a moment to be grateful for the fact that Paul made the time to write thoughtful letters to those for whom he cared.



[1] --Brett and Kate McKay, "The Art of Letter Writing," The Art of Manliness website, April 16, 2009, http://artofmanliness.com. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
[2] --Catherine Field.

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