the pen is mighter than the keyboard

 

Way long before I was obsessed with knitting I had this fond loving for all things paper.  You name it, I bought it.  Journals, accordian folders, note cards, stationary, scrapbooks - I wanted them ALL... I frequented stores like the Paper Source and Kate's Paperie walking around with a serious case of attention defcit disorder.  I wanted everything I saw.

Recently due to the knit-love, I haven't been as obsessive over my precious paper goods.  Of course next to all the yarn I've managed to buy in my short stint as a knitter sits boxes of different note cards, journals, and pads. 

When I was younger, I always pretended that I would have this fantastic long distance frienship that required boxes of letter stationary.   I even signed up through the post office for an international pen pal.  Her name was Heli from Finland. I can remember how excited when her first letter came.  I loved how she wrote her H's.  I wished then that my name would have begun with an H.  Funny now with the BF that childhood wish might come true one day.  We maybe wrote once or twice but soon that was taken over by basketball practices and piano lessons.

I then tried to start up a new letter writing relationship with a girl I had met while vacationing on LBI.  I felt like Bette Midler in Beaches fanticizing about this long term deep relationship with a girl I just met swimming.  Much like the first this ended in a three to four letter writing relationship.  Soon high school came and then computers, beepers, cell phones, and the boxes of note cards and stationary collected dust.

In college, my letter writing would get a bit of a resurrection.  I went on a retreat my sophomore year which included a surprise component of letters from friends, classmates and family.  A full envelopes of sheer affirmation.  My love for letters was reborn.  I of course paid it foward by writing to other friends and aquaintances who went on this retreat and letting them know how much they really mattered.  It was a great letter-loving sharing time!

Since then that letter writing hasn't had much of an opportunity to shine.  Much of what we tell people is said through phone or emails, never really hand written anymore. This year I hope to write one person a month a good letter of love and appreciation.  How often to we truly get to say how others  effect our lives.  When I write a letter I sit there thinking of each word instead of the email which seams more stream of concious than a cohesive sentiment.

So I tack on one more margaux-lution - spreading the love by letters. I mean what else can be better to join bills or catalouges than a stamped envelope of love?

Comments

[Jeanne B.]

You make a good point here. I was going to leave a long comment but decided this would make a great blog topic. Enjoy writing those letters. They will be treasured one day.

[Christine]

I loved this post. I'm the same way, constantly buying stationary and always tried for pen pals when I was younger. I now write both of my grandmothers a letter once a week and it's amazing how much they appreciate it!

[stacey]

as far as technology brings us, i still love the pen and paper. glad I'm not the only one!

[Kim]

I wrote lots of letters when I was in high school. Somehow, I didn't keep up in college - I switched to email. But I still don't "correspond" the way I thought I would, and the way some people do. I go long stretches in between contacting people. Now even Christmas cards say little more than "Merry Christmas". But I do still love stationery and have a big box of it stashed away.

[Nery]

I agree with you on this one. I have an old roll top desk filled with stationery, pretty cards and pens. And, I also have tons (and I mean tons!) of rubber stamps because I also LOVE to make cards. I for one save all the notes/cards/letters I have received for years now. There is something about a hand written note that is very special.

[Brenda]

Excellent idea! I should do this, too. My husband's paternal grandmother died this last autumn, and over Christmas, his parents gave him all the letters he had sent her (she had saved them all) that they found when cleaning out her things. He was really pleased to have them, and that his grandmother had thought enough of them to save them. So, write on!