Before we begin, we would like to observe and apologize for our blatant hypocrisy in not having hand written this post and sent it to you via carrier pigeon. Now that that is out of the way...
In this age dominated by instant messaging via AOL and tweetering, (or whatever the hell it is you kids use) it is easy to forget that you have a mailbox attached to your abode. Mail is understandably associated with bills and pizza coupons, but there was a time when messages from friends both far and near arrived to your doorstep. These messages were hand written genuine greetings that usually contained high levels of class.
Here are a some of the finer qualities accompanied by hand written letters that we seldom see today.
- Rampant misspellings demonstrated the true level of intelligence of writer.
- Handwriting was truly a display of art and individuality.
- Cursive is undeniably aesthetically pleasing.
- One could see the emotions you put into your letter through your handwriting.
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| Yes, people still used cursive even after the fifth grade. |
- Wax stamps: Need we say more?
- Ability for women to leave smell of perfume or a lipstick smudge from a kiss
- Because there is no backspacing, letters tend to be more thought out and poetic simply to avoid the shame of an incoherent sentence or an ugly cross out.
- The ability to enclose other things in an envelope:
- A cutout of a newspaper article from your grandmother that mentions you.
- Money
- Anthrax
- Oxygen
- Pizza coupons
- Stolen artwork that isn't very big
- Photographs
- Hand-drawn artwork: Preferred artist age: 3-7. Preferred utensil employed: crayon.
- Doodles. Electronic communication has strongly inhibited our ability to draw a nice cube in the upper right hand corner of a message or maybe some good squiggly lines near the header.
Additionally, many unpleasantries have arisen since the downfall of the hand written letter.
- The arise of MLA formatting
- The abuse of Comic Sans.
- The use of "lol", "rofl", "gtg", or any other unfortunate acronyms of phrases allegedly too long to type.
- e-cards emailed and forwarded to you from your aunt at least three different times.
- Everything that is not a wax stamp
- The Kardashians. Unrelated to hand written letters but a stain on the underpants of society nonetheless
- Having the other party expect an immediate reply when something is sent to you.
As you can see, there are many reasons why hand written letters are fine things. People tend to appreciate them much more knowing you put pen to paper and wrote something yourself. Their lessened use by society is creating a horde of unwelcome lifestyles. So we strongly encourage you to begin mastering this last art.
