Lakshmi Pratury during a past TED Conference delivered a talk about the importance of letter writing. Mentioning her father’s own letters, she said, “So maybe we all need to leave our children with a value legacy, and not a financial one. A value for things with a personal touch -- an autograph book, a soul-searching letter. If a fraction of this powerful TED audience could be inspired to buy a beautiful paper -- and write a beautiful letter to someone they love, we actually may start a revolution where our children may go to penmanship classes.”
Writing as a legacy. I think this is important to note because the physical act of putting pen to paper is going the way of dinosaurs and disco.
A Huffington Post story recently described “ABC News reports that 41 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards for English, which omits cursive handwriting from required curriculum. Now that it's not mandatory, schools around the country are debating whether or not to spend valuable teaching resources on penmanship.” Not mandatory? What? Are we expecting that computers and automated spelling programs will teach our kids to write or even spell? When will we stop writing all together?
There is something important about seeing and feeling a word as it is written. I have so much to say, it’s going to take more than one post to get into it. So, before I get started on my soapbox, let me say this. I love my laptop and my Smartphone. They are Über-convenient, but there is something real and lovely about a handwritten letter.
It saddens me to see such a decline. I comment several times each year when we receive holiday cards without a single word. Some aren’t even signed! What worries me more is that I am a writer and the same thing is starting in our house. First, it’s “I think we should use labels this year. It would be so much more efficient.” Then it spirals into, “Quick, let’s just sign these (instead of sending a personal note) and get them out the door. I mean, c’mon, it took us three weeks to schedule a family photo session for this holiday card and an extra week to get them since we were so late in the first place. Plus, if they aren’t mailed soon, they won’t reach your parents before we visit them again anyway.” Pretty soon, you’re up to your ears in work and dirty diapers, and too tired to think straight, so you slap on some labels and stamps and grumble as you have to take them to the post office to get post-marked by Holiday Eve.
But, I digress. My goal is to get our son’s birth announcements out this week. We are still within the six-month mark that Emily Post recommends. While it makes me feel a little better, I still feel a little slow in getting them out. Plus, I would like to get them out before we see any more of our family this summer. It’s just time to get these things out!
So, I plan to hand write every envelope and mail them this week. There may not be a bunch of personal notes (only a few will have them), but it is commonly acceptable for birth announcements since new parents are indeed taking care of a baby and living on little if any sleep. There will not be any address labels in under thirty seconds, and no return labels from our insurance agency (man, those have come in handy, more than once). The envelopes and any notes inside will be handwritten. And it feels good to actually write.
I sign off, with about ten cards completed and a stack more staring me down. I will do this. It may take time, but it’s important and I hope it starts an upward trend where this writer once again writes her own notes and letter instead of just hitting send. What do you like to write?
