Email. Facebook. Linkedin. I’m in touch all day with clients, colleagues, friends. Snail mail? Our office mail carrier—when she shows up—typically drops off a single Staples catalogue wrapped (mysteriously) with a rubber band.
But yesterday in my home mail box I received a post card. A wonderful short message from an old friend whose life I keep up with through facebook. And I was charmed. The experience—unlike all the digital means of keeping in touch—was emotional. Just a few short lines that took three weeks to reach me. But reading his post card I felt closer to him than I had in the years since he moved away.
It occurs to me that while constant digital communication is valuable and necessary it can’t come close to a handwritten message. You might scoff and say it’s generational, but my friend is 19 years my junior. He just has a wonderful sensibility and a thoughtfulness that has become rare. His post card reminds me how important real human connection is and how we’ve sacrificed it for the sake of ease and speed.
My new year’s resolution—and one I think I can actually keep—is to put pen to paper more often and be mindful that an email is expedient but can’t take the place of a heart-felt handwritten note.
