on the letter
The letter is one of those wonderful ways of communication we've lost to technological advancement. While I'm not going to wallow about how we should go back to a bygone form of message when there's very obviously more convenient methods, I will appreciate it's special attributes. More than the attributes, how I use(d) the letter in my life.
- THE UNSENT LETTER
A habit I have when a sentiment that I can't share with someone is eating at me is to write a letter that I'll never send (and I will say I did this before the netflix movie!). Usually it gets tucked into a page in my sketchbook, probably to be eventually drawn or painted over when I cringe enough at the sight of it.
What the letter does that the text, nay, even the email, does not do is make you think in segments. Where the email can run on and on as long as you want, same with the text if you're a double (or triple (or paragrapher)) texter, the letter makes you flip over, pull a new sheet out the more you write. When you look down at a 6 pager letter, yes you may think, wow I'm so passionate! Or, in my case, I think, wow I'm obsessed get it together.
This self induced embarrassment then causes me to cut it down in my head. I think my issue over and over again, trying to translate it into a few succinct paragraphs instead of an endless, nonsensical ramble. The theory is, that if I sent this letter instead of sending it away to the back of the sketchbook, I wouldn't come off as deranged and more as a rational person doing some problem solving. When you have to look at a piece of paper that you've filled to the brim rather than a imessage page that you can just scroll through as far as you want, suddenly you want your thoughts to be as prim and proper as you can.
- THE PENPAL LETTER
In COVID, I had the urge to write letters and actually send them to people! After finding a penpal in the US (Tennessee!), I sent letters for a while back and forth with her. Writing to a complete stranger is really odd at first, as you have to keep reminding yourself that aside from your name and address, this person knows nothing about you but what you write to them.
As the time between sending and receiving a letter could be anything from a few weeks to a few months, every time we would exchange letters, so much would have happened in my life that I would have endless plot lines to keep updating her on. Our exchanges ended up being like summaries for myself, meaning I had to look at everything in a simplified lens. No time nor energy to explain every single side character and little thing of the day to her, so I looked at everything I had to say in as simplified of a lens as possible.
One more fun little thing about the penpalling is that we sent each other little gifts and extras, anything went as long as they fit in the envelope! These extras ranged from playlists on little cue cards, polaroids, dried flowers, anything as long as it was little enough to send. When life got busy as I moved onto high school it slowed down, eventually to a stop, but still was very fun!