Once upon a time…

Before the Internet. Before phones and faxes. Before airplanes and automobiles.

Back when the world was a bigger place, people used to write letters. Not just a note scratched on to a peice of paper and thrust in to an envelope. No.

Letters were serious business. A person might spend days composing a letter. Making sure their thoughts were in order. Updating the recipient, not only what was happening, but on the writers frame of mind. His joy and sorrows. His frustrations and insecurities. His hopes.

Why, you might ask, would some one do all that?

The world was bigger back then. If you grew up and moved to the west coast, leaving your family back east. It was likely, that they would never see you again. Even people who lived closer, a different town perhaps, might only see each other on rare occasions. The idea of travel simply to see some one was unheard of.

If you were to keep in touch, writing a letter was your option. And getting it delivered wasn’t an easy matter either. You had to wait until someone had reason to travel to wherever you wanted your letter to go, and then arrange to have it delivered.

So you wrote. And updated. Added and amended. There was no rush, so you thought about what you wanted to say. And you said it. You used as many words as it took.

People wrote wonderful letters. Soldiers who missed their families. Politicians attempting to forge alliances. Old friends looking for and giving advice.

It’s a shame that no one has time to write a letter anymore. I am certain the world would be a place for it.