But...
Slow food is delicious. Hand written letters are special. Coffee in a small cafe is memorable. A note longer than 140 characters to a friend is thoughtful.
Fast food might fill you up but slow food is good for you. Email might offer plenty of opportunities to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues, but a letter with a stamp on it brightens a person's day. A caramel latte from your favorite drive-through might wake you up for work, but when was the last time you sat down to drink your coffee? Updating your friends with your latest photos and statuses is a great way to keep people informed, but have you taken time to see how someone else is doing?
In an age of 'quicker, faster, easier, and instant', I'm starting to see that filling our lives with these things is like filling our lives with fries and McNuggets...they fill us for a while but they have little 'nutritional' value. I believe these things that are created for our convenience cause us to be a little more self-absorbed. We don't take time to eat good food, we don't take time to sit and think, we don't even take time to make a phone call instead of sending a text message, and the majority of us don't take time to write a note to a friend and send it through the mail (no wonder our US Postal Service is going belly-up).
One thing I've learned this month is that good things take time and energy. I have had the luxury of being removed from a 'faster, quicker' world for a month and, although it was frustrating at first, it's felt so good to slow down and choose what I invest my time in. Food, conversation, relationships, commitments, personal projects, artwork, and friendships- they all take time and energy to create- but they're worth it.
I am making a proposal to all my blog readers, a challenge to those who are ready for it:
Write one letter to one person this week. Write a note in a card or scratch out a letter or on a piece of lined paper. You can use legal pad paper, computer paper, cardboard, whatever you have handy, just as long as it is a couple paragraphs and written by hand (don't worry about your handwriting or spelling errors). Giving someone a hand written letter versus sending a short email is like the difference between pot roast with potatoes and a Hungryman TV Dinner.
Good things take time and energy. Can you put a little time and energy into sending a note to a friend or family member? Let's take a second or two out of our busy schedules and write something that a person can open with their hands and physically hold and read- something tangible-something that can be stored in a drawer or a file or a pocket, to be read over and over again..
A letter, written in your own handwriting, signed with your own signature, absent of emoticons and 'LOLs' will only take about 7 minutes to write (at the most). You can either hand deliver your letter or send it through the mail- with a stamp on the envelope. You can send your mom a letter, your dad a note, or your sibling a 'hello'. You could write to your friend from college, your husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, daughter, son, cousin, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, friend from elementary school, an old colleague, and so on. The person you decide to write to is your choice, but I guarantee the recipient's response will be the same, they will appreciate the time and energy you put into something- more time and energy than it takes to click 'send' on an email, click 'update' on your Facebook, pay for your drive-through mocha, pick up a value meal from the second window, or get a Hungryman from the freezer to the microwave to the TV tray.
*Personal note: It started with sending postcards from Sweden, Iceland, and France, now letter writing is becoming one of my favorite ways to stay in contact. I have found that a simple gesture like a letter or note means a lot to people- and I am sure you'll find it the same with whoever you write to. Happy Friday!
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