The Humble Letter
March 30, 2020

Like a lot of people all around the world right now, I'm having to spend more
time indoors and away from other people, and having to make adjustments--to
other family members working from home, to not being able to go out like I used
to, to random shortages at my local grocery stores. I usually meet a friend for
coffee on Wednesdays. This week, we met over the internet. It wasn't the same as
meeting face to face, and that got me thinking about the ways we connect to and
have contact with other people. One technology that seems to have fallen out of
fashion and is now little used, but which could help assuage feelings of
separation and loneliness in these uncertain times, is the humble pen-and-paper
letter.

Simon Garfield, in his book To the Letter, mentions that many writers consider
letter writing to be no less "writing" than their other prose. I agree. It's
difficult to put what's essentially a narrative (or at least a structured series
of thoughts) on paper for a single reader, using the best words in the best
order and doing it on the fly. In addition, once you put a sentence on paper,
there's no taking it back without scratching through it (making the change of
thought apparent) or starting the entire page again from the beginning. Writing
a good letter is a demanding, difficult task for any wordsmith.

But it's also a very human, intimate task. The act of writing to another person
shows not only that there's a connection to that person, but that you value that
connection strongly enough to spend the time and effort to go through all the
steps to send a letter--from hunting down the stationery in the desk drawer to
dropping the envelope in the mail. Sure, the same information could be conveyed
quicker and easier in an email and sure, the words would be the same. However in
this case it's the act and fact of doing something difficult that sends a
message as strong as the words on paper. To write is to show you care, and care
a lot. In my mind, the fact you do it at all carries more weight than how well
you do it.

So while you're whiling away the hours and days indoors, consider taking that
time to write letters to all the people who matter to you, be they family,
friends, or even just people who have had an impact on your life. Look up the
address for that friend you haven't actually talked to for years (it's probably
still on your Christmas card list) and catch up. Send a thank-you note to those
teachers or professors who taught you something, even if the lesson wasn't on
the syllabus. Tell some other writer or artist you admire their work and why--if
they don't have contact information on their website, try sending the letter via
their agent or publisher. Write a letter, and let the people you care about know
you care. It's a difficult, but human thing to do.

(c) 2020 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com