|
|
Post by michelleg on Jun 30, 2020 17:27:40 GMT
"Beck: What is it about physical letters that has stayed so special for you? Belinda: Picking them up from the floor, actually opening the envelope, looking at the stamp, and saving the stamp. Feeling the paper and seeing the written word—it's everything." www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/05/letter-writing-endangered-art/610945/Fun little interview that Atlantic writer Julie Beck did for her Friends Files series in May 2020. The headline is a little misleading - it was more a conversation between long time friends who still write to each other, but not really anything about how letter writing is endangered - that part was disappointing. I'm interested to hear the community's thoughts on - The original article
- What article about letter writing would you WANT to read? What topic about it would interest you?
|
|
|
|
Post by distractedmom on Jun 30, 2020 20:38:50 GMT
It makes me wonder how hard it would be to have a "letter only" friendship in this day and age. I follow some pen pals on Instagram. I am FB friends with fewer. I can see the benefits of both...it's nice to be able to check in with someone online quickly, but too much online time and there's nothing interesting for the letters. I love that they've stayed in touch. It's quite heartwarming.
You know what I'd really love to see? Samples of famous/historical people's penmanship.
|
|
|
|
Post by ginny on Jun 30, 2020 21:02:06 GMT
That's a fun interview, and I love the way they are in sync about things. They probably can finish each other's sentences after all these years *lol* Actually, that's the kind of article I like to read about letter writing. distractedmom - quite a few of my penpals are not on social media, so letters and the occasional e-mail are all that we exchange. Works fine for me. My longest-standing penpal and I strictly stick to letters - I think we have only exchanged e-mails two or three times over all these years. We have been writing for over 40 years now  We have met in person four or five times. |
|
|
|
Post by michelleg on Jul 1, 2020 11:26:49 GMT
It makes me wonder how hard it would be to have a "letter only" friendship in this day and age. I follow some pen pals on Instagram. I am FB friends with fewer. I can see the benefits of both...it's nice to be able to check in with someone online quickly, but too much online time and there's nothing interesting for the letters. I love that they've stayed in touch. It's quite heartwarming. You know what I'd really love to see? Samples of famous/historical people's penmanship. I follow a couple of folks here on IG because like most IG users, it's all about the photos. What I share on social media is not necessarily what I share in letters. Plus, I'd never run out of things to talk about one on one - I'm constantly learning and always ready to chat about deep and meaningful things and ideas. So I have no worries there. I have several books of famous/historical people's letters, and sometimes they have photos of the actual pages. I vaguely recall a museum exhibit that was centered around this theme, but I don't remember where or when it was. I'll have to ask my friend who works in the museum sector. Some of the ones I've seen are fascinating but sometimes difficult to read! |
|
|
|
Post by michelleg on Jul 1, 2020 11:27:41 GMT
My longest-standing penpal and I strictly stick to letters - I think we have only exchanged e-mails two or three times over all these years. We have been writing for over 40 years now We have met in person four or five times. Wow - that's beautiful! Even my longest friendship isn't that long! Kudos! |
|
|
|
Post by Catida on Jul 1, 2020 14:29:32 GMT
That's a fun interview, and I love the way they are in sync about things. They probably can finish each other's sentences after all these years *lol* Actually, that's the kind of article I like to read about letter writing. distractedmom - quite a few of my penpals are not on social media, so letters and the occasional e-mail are all that we exchange. Works fine for me. My longest-standing penpal and I strictly stick to letters - I think we have only exchanged e-mails two or three times over all these years. We have been writing for over 40 years now We have met in person four or five times. That sounds wonderful! I hope one day I can say I have a penfriendship that's lasted 40 years
distractedmom,I don't follow my penfriends in social media, but with my overseas penfriends we exchange e-mails informing eachother when we've sent/ received a letter, so we'll know if a letter gets lost. Occasionally we might add something else too, but we try to stick to the letters. |
|
|
|
Post by ginny on Jul 1, 2020 16:40:49 GMT
My longest-standing penpal and I strictly stick to letters - I think we have only exchanged e-mails two or three times over all these years. We have been writing for over 40 years now We have met in person four or five times. Wow - that's beautiful! Even my longest friendship isn't that long! Kudos! I'd say this *is* my longest friendship. I have lost touch with all my childhood / school friends (nothing dramatic happened - just life, moving houses and all that), so this is the person who knows me longer than anybody else, except for family, obviously. There have been gaps in our communication occasionally, but we have always, always kept in touch. We met via an ad in a youth magazine when we were teens. |
|
|
|
Post by distractedmom on Jul 6, 2020 1:21:45 GMT
I have several books of famous/historical people's letters, and sometimes they have photos of the actual pages. I vaguely recall a museum exhibit that was centered around this theme, but I don't remember where or when it was. I'll have to ask my friend who works in the museum sector. Some of the ones I've seen are fascinating but sometimes difficult to read! Yes! Penmanship has changed so much that they can be difficult to read! |
|
We have met in person four or five times.
