Hand Written Correspondence

 

I have been doing well on my New Year’s resolution number one: reading fiction. Today, I institute resolution number two: corresponding with my loved ones. I have been terribly remiss in not faithfully calling or writing those I love or even returning calls. It is not lack of care or love. It is both laziness and inconvenience—two things I will not consider valid obstacles any further. Laziness, because it takes a lot of time and effort; and inconvenience, because of the time difference (I am early to bed and early to rise) and the CA time difference poses a boundary (-3 hours), and the annoyances of the cell phone reception and awkward phone-shape situation.

Rather than email correspondence which is both less romantic and more immediately burdensome because of the pressure to send an instant response, I want to take up, or rather re-take up, letter writing. It will allow me to spend time getting to know my family beyond a simple five minute catch-up phone conversation. I can take my pad and paper anywhere, and there are plenty of meaningful cards to send to people. I do find that letter writing makes it sometimes difficult to ask questions, because they stand rhetorically unanswered…a lonely question-marked clause.

In some ways, letters are a strange mechanism for sharing and communion.  They are the ultimate in self-reflection, because they are all one-sided. Me, putting my life and my thoughts, upon you. And then you get the chance to talk back at me, uninterrupted. However, through the ages somehow sharing and interaction effectively result from the intimate pages. Anyway, I am resolved to keep up a letter campaign with several people: my grandparents, extended family, and friends. And the nice part is that letters come back answered and then you respond again. The timing seems to be an appropriate distance apart, and you are not obliged to respond until the letter is returned. It sets a natural pace.  

I hope to send one today, or at least have one written. I may even compel my little Sunday school students to write love notes to themselves from God today. I cannot wait to see how my relationships grow in this arrangement.