Missing Mail

I go to my mail box every day just like I did as a kid. It was a treat to be the one who got to run down our (what seemed to be really long) drive way to ‘get the mail’. It was like a daily holiday that you could get an unexpected little gift of a card or a letter from someone. As a pre-teen, teen, and well past my college years I had pen pals. They were friends I made when I was at summer camp or on 4-H trips, then bands, and eventually college. Long letters…typically hand written, were exchanged about once a month. It was wonderful and still brings a smile to my face thinking about those letters.




When I was in college I wouldn’t even wait to get back up to my dorm room…I’d sit down in the lobby near the mail boxes, tear into the envelope, and saturate my brain with whatever my friend was writing to tell me about.



I guess that one of the reasons Facebook and Twitter, and online newsletters have become so popular among almost everyone is that same little feeling pops up when you get an email or a comment from a ‘friend’ who you haven’t chatted with in a long time.



Here is the only problem. Because we send each other quick little electronic messages…the depth, emotion, and well…let’s be honest… the connected-ness has decreased dramatically.



If we are also truly honest…one of the best parts of our birthday… is going to the real mail box that is hung on our house, at the end of our drive way, or down in the common lobby at the complex we live in to see if anyone loved us enough to ‘send’ a card.



Thanks to computers and color printers we have reduced our letter writing to a once a year family ‘newsletter’ that we send out instead of a card with a hand written letter that is actually written from one person to another.



Heart felt messages have been replaced with electronic babble.



When was the last time you got an actual card, or letter, with an actual note or letter written to you?