Mail Call

by Carol Sorgen, Managing Editor, JustSayGo

When was the last time you actually received a letter in the mail? I was thinking of that the other day when I picked up my own mail and sorted through the customary stack of bills, credit card offers, advertising circulars, press kits, and magazines.

From the time I was a little girl, I’ve always been a mail “junkie.” I started subscribing to magazines when I was about 6 (an obsession that continues today!), and I would anxiously await the arrival of the mailman (there were no mail “women” then) with my latest issues.

But it wasn’t just the magazines I looked forward to—there were birthday party invitations, letters from my grandparents and aunts (often with checks in them, which of course made them even more special!), postcards from friends who were away at summer camp, or letters from new friends I’d made during my own wanderings with my family, or later, on my own. Getting the mail really was an adventure!

No more! With quad-band cell phones, email, instant messaging, and the like, who actually sits down these days to write a long, newsy letter to a faraway friend (indeed, who even can actually hold a pen anymore—I know it often feels awkward for me!). Email has meant we can be in constant touch with loved ones near and far but our messages are often reduced to snippets like, “Oy, what a day I’m having…how ‘bout you?” Sure, there’s something to be said for the immediacy—and “daily-ness”—of these impromptu messages, but there’s also something missing when we don’t take the time to sit down and really think about what we’re going to write, to actually see the words flow from our pen onto a piece of paper (which brings me to the point of missing all the beautiful stationery I used to send and receive).

As a writer—and a sometimes journalism professor—I’ve always made the point that I believe there is a real connection that links the brain, the hand, and the paper (it’s one reason I never record interviews, preferring to take notes instead). Of course, I’m as guilty as everyone else in this hustle-bustle age we live in…I rarely send letters either, although I do try for the occasional postcard and birthday/anniversary/ sympathy cards with a note added in my own hand.

I’m not about to turn in my modern-day links to the rest of the world—but I do miss the days when the mail carrier brought more than my latest VISA bill!