Writing letters, that 'old' style of communication..
Today I had an email talking to me about the art of writing letters. Or, rather, the ability to write letters.
I have always enjoyed letter writing, and I think I actually
write letters all the time, whether it is actually
writing or just
thinking letters. Letters, of course, as messages, modes of communicating to someone else. It is also a form of clarifying how I feel and think about something.
Receiving letters, however, is more of a dying thing for me, sadly. I rarely receive letters, and when I do (often, thankfully, I do receive letters, from my mother, for example), I find I have to place them in the 'in-tray' and tend to them / read them, when time allows. I need to be in a specific calm place before i can properly pay attention to them. It is, having just written that statement here, rather sad, of course. Emails, on the other hand, are almost unavoidable, they are read, replied to, in almost the same moment of each other. A letter, much more complex, as one tends to read between the lines - even see things; memories, places, visuals that depending on the content and the letter writer, can be very important to the message and the way I read and take the information in.
Beautiful letters containing happy and sad news, what happened to the art of letter writing? I still have many amongst my belongings, where will they go when I move on, pack things away to transport to other locations, when I am no longer here? Letters have become very interesting to me again. I am working on ideas about ways of archiving time and memories. The loss of a letter or two in the process (when moving or spring cleaning, for example) is only a natural part of the process of archiving.
