Handwritten Letters

In a lot of history books, say for example a Civil War book, it’s common to read of the letters that the hopeful young soldier’s write to home.  Unique specifics make actual hand written letters special for a number of reasons.  Of course the American Civil War was a day when a computer generated letter was out of the question.  From reading though, it’s easy to see that the home bound letter writing sessions for the soldier was considered one of the only nice activities on their agenda.

Researched, first of all, there’s the actual catharsis of physically writing down what’s on your mind.  This controlled act is not as spontaneous as, say, an email, so your choice of words will be weighed, picked, more carefully.  Also, the fact that it’s a more time consuming project makes for the sealing of that envelope a small victory.  And interestingly, findings also report that what is handwritten as opposed to keyboard written, are words that somehow stick more cohesively in your brain.

Albeit, this goes against my enlightened digital lifestyle philosophy but when a hand written note is warranted to a loved one, this one thing indeed is not the catalyst for our globe losing green trees.  I think my idea of, “choosing your battles,” comes into play in here.  I won’t feel much guilt over this battle, using recycled paper for letters to loved ones versus saving a tree, unless the deforestation becomes that dire, well, on second thought…how about I don’t worry about that battle this very second?

What about you?  Does it feel good to mail or receive that hand written letter?