A man walks into the Post Office, Part 2

The system is really quite simple. It's like this, I write all I need to say on 6” x 9” unlined paper which I fold into thirds and put in a letter sized envelope. Then I write who I am and where I live then I write someone else's name and where they live. I affix postage. On my walk to work, I drop the letter into the box in front of the old folks home. It makes me wonder why all old folks homes have mailboxes in front of them. And further, why I would know that there are mailboxes in front of old folks homes.

In some days, the letter will reach its destination, touched by all sorts of P.O. workers.

When I return from work and check my mail, there will oftentimes be a letter waiting for me.

It's a hell of a system.

Unfortunately, this does not happen for my daily. It still happens, the sending and receiving of letters. It happens much more to me that to the average person, I suspect.

However, I write to so few people anymore. I used to write to everyone, and almost everyone would write back to me. And over the years, I've had those penpals who will swap a few letters with me and then we're done. I still have a penpal with whom I still exchange letters and that's been the case since 1987. In a very real way, she is the oldest friend I have. She's still very influential.

I attribute the letter writing to two things: the first is that I simply grew up writing letters, I mean after all, no email, and phone calls meant long distance. And second, I spent years very far from home, very far from friends. Letters were convenient, intimate and commonplace.

I only bring it up today because I recently saw a cartoon which had a character from 20 years ago saying: “I'll never be able to answer all these letters.” And the computer dinged with you got mail and the character raced to the computer and dropped the letters. The second frame was today—same character. Sighing through the vast amount of email looking depressed. He became very excited holding a parcel and exclaiming OMG! A letter!

It's a sign of the times, for sure. Twenty years ago, yes, email was exciting, because it was not fully commonplace. Email had not killed the letter or, I suspect, the phone call. And today, we are inundated with email.

Oddly enough, I do not receive much email. I maintain Umbrella Factory Magazine and nearly all of the 10-15 emails I get a month pertain to that. I get on average, two emails a year or maybe three, from my blog. I don't give out my email and I really don't use it. And although I do not get much mail via USPS, it still comes to me. I will answer a letter sooner than an email.

The two aren't even comparable. Not really. I get great letters. I also get one sentence emails that aren't even worth the transmission. And if you don't believe me, send me your address via this site and I will write you a letter. Send me a one sentence email, and I'll give you even less.

It's more than jest letters, I send postcards too. In fact, I have one postcard penpal I've been sending postcards to since 1995.

I buy postcards everywhere I go. When I write a postcard, it's like a small quip or anecdote. I suppose f letter is to email then a postcard is a text.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. I hate returning text messages and I will almost never instigate a text message exchange. I am very slow to answer email. I suppose I have the luxury of slow responses because I don't have to do it at all.

I say it doesn't matter only because most people see the letter (or postcard) as inconvenient, cumbersome and costly. But I say paper is not nearly as cheap as ether, think about it. If you'll commit your words to paper, they will not be cheap words, they can't be. And as far as a postcard goes: it's fifty cents to mail it, and it's fifty cents to buy it. Therefore it would be a buck a post car, if you send three a day, everyday, it's less money per month than the phone you're reading this on. What a thought, right?

I do not really wish a return to a better time, that never works and does no exist. What I'm saying is this: communications is all we really have, wouldn't it be refreshing if we took it seriously and send everyone we know a letter? Or a postcard telling what we're doing and that we may or may not be coming back? Perhaps we're not traveling like we once were. Perhaps we're just not doing things we once were because so many social media middle men have taken our intimacy away.

Don't delay, write to a friend today.