On letter writing…
When did the last handwritten letter drop through your letterbox? Or, perhaps more to the point, when did you last put pen to paper and actually write a letter, address an envelope, affix a stamp and post it in a postbox?
The number of letters delivered by Royal Mail has dropped by more than two thirds in the last twenty years (Changes in Royal Mail). People are sending fewer letters. In Denmark, the postal service has actually stopped delivering letters altogether. (Danish postal service).
Is this just because of the rise of first emails, and then messaging and now social media? Is the written letter just outdated and unnecessary? Moribund even?
But there is something distinctly different between a personal, written letter and a message on WhatsApp. A written letter is a tangible, tactile, physical reminder of a certain moment in time. It speaks of who you and the writer were at that time and of your relationship. It is a snapshot capturing a moment in time, preserving it.
In the Summer I went up in my loft and got down a box full of letters. Mainly they were in exciting airmail envelopes with exotic looking stamps but less exciting addresses. They chart my relationship and communications with Roz (then a long-distance girlfriend, now my wife), especially from the time she was living in Peru. Before Zoom or Skype or the like, we were able to talk on the phone sometimes, but it was letters that kept us connected. Looking back on them now, I can remember the anticipation at receiving a new one and feeling close - despite the distance. Letters can be deeply personal.
I also find the incredible popularity of ‘Letters Live’ interesting. Performers and celebrities read real letters from real people from a range of cultures and countries and times in history. Some are hilarious, belly laughingly funny, while others are heartwrenching. I dare you to watch a few performances on YouTube, just be warned that it is a possible rabbit hole it may take some time to emerge from.
Adrian Edmondsen says “As an atheist, I find Letters Live the closest I’ve come to a religious experience. There’s something deeply personal and confessional about sharing a letter with people for one time, and one time only.”
If you think about it, there is a ‘Letters Live’ (or The Jolly Postman for an alternative reference) element to reading the Bible. Several books in the New Testament are actually letters written by one person to another, or a group of people. As such, the Bible contains verses like:
See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! (Galatians 6:11)
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. (2 Peter 3:1)
I wonder at the excitement and anticipation that would have been felt by the believers at receiving a new letter. The reading and re-reading. If we imagined ourselves in that position would that help us when reading parts of the Bible
As Miranda Sawyer says “Letters – more careful, more permanent – last longer. They have significance. They require composition, editing, thought, some crossing out and starting again. (Mark Twain once wrote to a friend: “I apologise for such a long letter, I didn’t have time to write a short one.”)”
Christmas is coming, an opportunity to write a letter! Is there someone you want to reconnect with or communicate with on a deeper level?
Now, where are the stamps?
