Some good friends of ours moved back to England recently. It’s taken them forever to get in touch – it took them two weeks to get a phone line sorted, and they are still waiting for their broadband. So when my husband’s birthday card from them arrived a week or so ago, he came in with a huge smile on his face. The card had included a letter, in beautiful handwriting and full of our friends’ latest news. My husband held the letter up as if it was some sort of precious antique – which in some ways I suppose it was! When he’d finished reading it, he gave it to me, and once I’d finished it, he read it again. It was great to hear their news, but it was even better to think that they had gone to the time and trouble to pen a letter.
Soon our friends will be back online, and doubtless we shall be back in contact with them via Facebook, Skype and email … and most definitely not by post! And yet that old-fashioned method of communication had meant much more than an email or Skype call. It struck me that in the rush of modern-day living, we seem to have forgotten that sometimes the old ways are still as wonderful and valid as they ever were.
We rush everywhere looking for the latest gadget or form of entertainment, forgetting the fun and sociability of a board game or game of cards. We buy expensive, pre-packaged fruit from the supermarket rather than picking our own blackberries. If we go for a walk in nature, we probably listen to music on our headphones, rather than to the sounds of the countryside. If we are sick, we want a pill that will make us better quickly, rather than relying on those old staples of rest and sleep.
Of course, not everything about the past is red and rosy: but it is a great loss if we forget many of the better aspects of the old ways. So why not surprise a loved one or close friend, and send them a handwritten letter? Who knows – you might even get the pleasure of receiving a letter back!
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