Letters

Today I was struck by the connection that exists between the writers of handwritten letters and the readers of them.

Think about it, first you start with a blank page. You can write about whatever you want. Maybe it is about how your life is going, maybe it is about a member of your family or maybe such as in the case of Abigail Adams, you are simply asking your husband to provide the woman of the Revolutionary War era with pins. Yes, pins.

But then you put the pen to paper and the words start flowing. Line after line about what is important enough for you to convey to whoever will read this letter. You finish the letter — did you use “regards” or “sincerely” or “love”? All of them mean different things. You send the letter.

This letter gets transported through distance to the recipient. The recipient is intrigued, they have no idea what is written. They may laugh, they may cry or they may simply be thankful to get something personal instead of another bill. (I know I certainly am when this happens.)

What is most incredible though is when that letter gets transported through time. The reader is reading words that George Washington wrote, that John Adams wrote or most importantly, what your deceased loved ones wrote. When you ache for the sound of their voice, you can almost get it back by reading their words. Their palms touched the very same paper that you are reading now. You are connected back once again to a person you loved.

And really, how cool is that?

Photo by Kate Macate on Unsplash