My image for day 3/31 of Susannah Conway's The August Break: a bundle of letters from my pen friend in America. We have never (yet) met in the flesh, we currently know each other solely through our handwritten letters.
Writing letters by hand is an excellent discipline for both mind and manners, and a delightful way to make friends. There is some effort involved in writing by hand. This is no hasty email dashed off between chores. There is a modest sense of occasion about writing a hand written letter; the gathering of paper, ink, and envelopes, the gathering of thoughts, and the physical sitting down to write. There is the requirement for concentration; if your letter is to be attractive to the eye as well as the mind of the recipient, there is less room for mistakes (unless you send a page full of scored out passages). There is a sense of conversation, of trying to make your letter interesting to read, of demonstrating, via the written word, that you have read carefully the letter to which you are replying, that you care about what is contained therein, that you are responding appropriately before sharing your own news, views, or opinions. There is the affectionate signing off, with 'Hope to hear from you soon!' or 'Sending love', before the letter is finished, carefully checked, and finally posted.
I still find it remarkable that a I can compose a letter at my desk or kitchen table, send it from our local Post Office, and a week or so later, my pen friend, in her American house, can be boiling the kettle in her kitchen for a cup of tea to drink whilst she reads it.
Do you still write letters by hand, or send postcards from holidays, or write thank you cards? Something that can be treasured, or at the very least, appreciated, by the recipient? Propped up on the mantelpiece, or on the kitchen window sill, to be savoured again when there's time, perhaps slipped between the pages of a favourite book for safe keeping, or kept in a bundle with other correspondence.
Author Susan Branch writes lovingly about the art of handwriting here , and here is a website devoted to all things snail-mail.
