I am spending the evening reading. I thought I might read a little then write a letter but as the evening wears on I feel I will do better to write a better letter in the morning. A friend awaits a letter and I do not wish to shortchange him. After reading from Jane Eyre (you can read about this in The Reading Corner) I moved on to Writing Letters With Pen & Ink which introduced me to essayist Sven Birkerts. I have only the briefest acquaintance with Mr. Birkerts but thus far I have reason to like him. Mr. Birkerts writes letters to people by hand as many of us do because he likes "the feel of it." Such pleasure needs no explanation to anyone who puts pen to paper. More than that, and this is where I find inspiration, he prefers to walk his letters to the post office to mail them instead of driving. He writes, "And never mind that there are a thousand things I could be doing with the time-- I take the extra half hour and walk. The do-do list gets longer, but never mind. I get an unexpected purchase on my thinking." I appreciate the value he places on mental space, my term for room to think. A few slow minutes of thought has greater value than attending to a multitude of trivialities. I find that in writing letters I buy time and space for thought. As the world spins round ever faster such space gains value. I suspect I am not alone in this experience. I suspect also that the rapidly moving world is behind the desire of so many to recover letter writing not only as an art but as a discipline. Letter writing lends itself to balance.
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![]() I received a wonderful surprise in the mail. My friend, Mr. Murphy, has given me a book! Writing Letters with Pen & Ink by Edward St Paige is a small book full of big ideas. Every page contains not only the authors own words but also pictures and quotes. Among the pictures are fountain pens, postage stamps, black and white illustrations, and even fine art. I first looked through the book casually, taking in the pictures and enjoying a few quotes. Now I am about the task (the very pleasant task) of reading through each page. This is a very enjoyable read and one I think readers of this blog would appreciate. I will leave you with a quote that struck a chord with me, and I believe, will with you also. It describes beautifully why we take the trouble to write letters by hand. "We are in the luxurious position which or forbearers were not, of being able to choose from among the thousands of activities that machines do for us, the few that we would enjoy doing for ourselves, and to take them back because we enjoy performing them. For me, writing letters by hand, with ink, on paper, is one of them." Thank you, Mr. Murphy, you have delighted me greatly. Your gift will provide me much enjoyment; I am certain of it. As my teenage daughter told me, "You have the best pen pals!" ![]() I have been reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. The cover claims it is a New York Times best seller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It is an interesting book and an all around good read. I will not review the book but want to share what Mr. Carr says in his sixth chapter about letter writing I think you will find his statement to be interesting. "To see how small changes in writers' assumptions and attitudes can eventually have a large effect on what they write, one need only glance at the history of correspondence. A personal letter written in, say, the nineteenth century bears little resemblance to an e-mail or text message written today. Our indulgence in the pleasure of informality and immediacy has led to a narrowing of expressiveness and a loss of eloquence." I suspect most of us who put pen to paper and write letters nod in agreement. We realize that the world is a quickly changing place and not all the changes are for the better. Expressiveness and eloquence have popularly been exchanged for informality and immediacy. We recognize this and regret the loss of civility this change represents. We know some things are worth preserving...or maybe restoring...and so we write letters. |
Letter Matters
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