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Monday, February 11, 2013

Saturday Mail

"NO SATURDAY LETTERS? SIGN ME, HEARTBROKEN." Ah, a person after my own heart! This was the headline in our local newspaper the day that the Postal Service let the nation know there would soon be no delivery on Saturday. Now, I am all for saving money, and know that the Postal Service has been losing money ever since the "tech" invasion, but that is not my lament. The bigger worry for me is that "letter writing" is dying, if not already dead, as well as card sending and any other kind of personal snail mail. I agree that most of what we get in our mail box is either bills or junk advertising, so I really am not too unhinged by the demise of Saturday mail. But, don't you just love, every now in then, going to your mail box and finding a real letter or card from someone who took the time to think about you, and write to you! For me, it is always the jewel in the crown, or the prize in the box of crackerjacks.  In a previous BLOG, I wrote about the significant loss of letter writing (see letters), and what, in the future, our children and grandchildren will not know about how we felt about things; what we thought about things etc. or ever be able to save that special card or letter from Dad, Mom or Grandma. This loss is made more potent to me as I read the historical David McCullough books that give us such a genuine and real picture of the person he is writing about. We are able to peer into the person's real psych and personality by reading so many of the letters that are included in these books. I am presently reading "Truman" and were it not for the many letters that President Truman sent to his wife Bess, his mother and his sister...we would not know this profound and complicated man, nor would we know him as a real person who, thru his letters, lets us know how he is feeling about the major and significant years and events of his presidency. I know that letter writing cannot be brought back in this fast, tech society, and I am only lamenting what will be lost. Each week, I still try to write several letters, and perhaps send a card to someone I am thinking about.....not a big thing, but perhaps something that can brighten someone's day to know that someone was thinking about them.

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