Do You Still Write Personal Letters?

by Kevin Burton

   Here’s a shoutout to Angie in Michigan, Linda in England and to hundreds of others who made this post possible.

   It’s World Letter Writing Day according to the National Day Calendar. I am still a practitioner of the art. Back in the day, I was an extreme practitioner.

   A month or so after I graduated from college I found an organization called International Pen Friends.  I am ashamed to admit I used to think everything good and golden stopped at the Unites States borders. By this time I had shaken free from this nonsense.

   To join IPF I sent in (I think) $14 and got a list of 16 names of people who wanted pen pals, who I could write to.  Also my name and address were sent to sixteen other people. That was how I met Linda; my name was on her IPF list.

   There were several organizations similar to IPF. Angie got my name from one called Caravan, as I recall.

   People also sent friendship books or FBs, homemade booklets with names and addresses therein.

   For most of the late 80s and into the 90s I had about three dozen pen pals. When some of them fell by the wayside, I sent off to IPF for more pals.

   I just discovered IPF still exists, 56 years strong, according to its website. I thought maybe the club had gone under, since few people write letters anymore.

   “Letter writing is not for the faint of heart. It takes time and thought,” my longtime friend Angie said through Facebook. “It’s becoming a lost art.”

   To her point, many writers have been credited with a quote to the effect of “Sorry for the long letter. I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

   But short or long, a personal letter leaps from the stack of advertisements, bills and political propaganda, straight to the front of your attention.

   “Nowadays when people get ‘real’ mail via card or letter it usually makes their day,” Angie said.

   Very true and it has been that way for us since the Bush administration – the first one.

   The funny part is Angie wrote me in part because it would be fun to write someone from Alaska. She soon found out I was in Alaska but not from Alaska and in fact  was from Columbus, Ohio,  the capital city of the college football enemy Ohio State Buckeyes.

   Here are some reasons to write personal letters, according to National Day Calendar.

• It’s a thoughtful way to communicate with those you love.
• The receiver may treasure your letter for years to come.
• People who write letters of gratitude feel happier and more satisfied with life.
• It’s a great way to strengthen a friendship, marriage, or other meaningful relationship.
• It can help someone better understand your perspective or position on a certain topic.
• Your older friends and relatives will cherish this traditional form of communication.
• If you have beautiful handwriting, it’s a way to show off your penmanship skills.

   I do not have beautiful handwriting, never have..  All my letters are either typed or printed.

   “Children are no longer taught cursive,” Angie said. “I imagine soon cursive will be considered an ancient art that requires a college class to learn.”

   These days my cursive writing is limited to signing checks, which in itself is quite limited.

   “One more reason to write a letter instead of a text or e-mail is that it forces you to really think about what you’re writing. Far too often, we hurriedly send texts and e-mails without really thinking about the impact our words have on the receiver. With a handwritten letter, you are forced to be more careful with the words you choose,” reads the National Day Calendar website.

   “Have you ever considered that the greatest friend you may ever have could be someone you have never met, living in a country you have never visited,” reads a message on the IPF website. IPF has 300,000 members in 192 countries.

   “Our commitment and high level of service has led to us being recognized as the greatest pen friend organization in the world,” reads the website. 

   Doesn’t say who recognizes them, but I believe the claim. If you are interested check them out at www.ipfworld.com.

   But of course you don’t have to take on pen pals to participate in World Letter Writing Day. Most of us have multiple friends and relatives who would be delighted, once they got over the shock, to get a letter from us.