DO YOU STILL KNOW HOW TO WRITE A LETTER

I’m a pretty good writer. I’ve written some books and some courses and I regularly do journaling. During the past few years, it’s primarily been done on a computer – where I also do tons of emails, and I also communicate a lot by texting on my phone. During the past couple of months, however, I’ve been handwriting notes of gratitude to lots of people who have provided support in various ways after Libby’s death.

I’ve learned something in the process. I’m out of practice when it comes to writing letters, and I’m not that good at it anymore. While I was busy doing other things in other ways, letter writing seems to have gotten neglected. I wonder if the same thing applies to you.

There’s something about handwriting a letter that can’t be duplicated on the computer. You have to be more thoughtful because you may have to rewrite the whole note if you misspell or leave out a word. Although my closest friends will generally tolerate my cross outs, as I will do with them, but that’s not the way that I want to come across when I’m thanking a near-stranger who made a charitable contribution in Libby’s memory.

I know that there is a battle being fought in some quarters about the value of cursive writing. I don’t know how I feel about that - having spent most of my professional life in the health field trying to decipher various colleagues writing and not always being successful at it. I do know however, that the way that you can express both your personality and empathy toward others through a handwritten note generally can’t be duplicated on a computer or in a text where “you” is spelled “U” and “Thanks” is spelled “Thx”.

Computers and smart phones and AI all have their place in our lives, and it’s an important place – but let’s not lose the personalized art of handwritten communication