The lost art of letter writing:

Words are all I have, to take your heart away

by Lionel Wijesiri

Thanks to the digital age, I have over the years managed to get in touch with many long-lost friends. But, one of them recently sent me an e-mail complaining that she actually misses me more, not less.

Amazed by the seemingly absurd statement, I immediately pressed reply: "What on earth do you mean?"

Within half-an-hour, her e-mail came back with a strangely familiar passage in quotation marks. "Late last night the rain just dripped and dropped against the window sill for a few minutes and then stopped. It seems to be signalling the end of the rainy season. Met Office forecasters say temperatures could climb over the coming days. Indian summer is arriving. Yet, I do not mind the thundering rainy nights; what I fear more is the severity of the Indian summer, when my skin turns dark sweaty bronze when the afternoon sun lingers a bit too long on my shoulders. It's awful."

Only when I got to the end of the paragraph, did it dawn on me that it was my own writing. I wrote this passage to her decades ago while studying for a degree in India. It was a handwritten letter, something I regret to report, I rarely do these days.

She concluded: "See what I mean? Where is the writer of this letter now?" Hers is a fair accusation, though she, too, has stopped writing such expressive letters. Since we communicate by e-mail or social media, we say things that are neither deep nor profound. Our electronic correspondence stays on the shallow side of the lake, and our prose, if it can be called such, is only a bit wittier than the yellow pages of the phone book.

"How's it going?" I would ask in a text. "Went to see a show last night," she would text back. "Fantastic. Door bell's ringing. Got to go. See you around. Bye."

Lost art

Letter writing is truly a lost art, a vintage skill, if you will. The flow of the pen gracefully etching out your thoughts to someone. I know it is crazy to think about letter writing in this text-crazy world, where attention spans are about 3 minutes. But, I honestly miss them, even the little notes I used to write during class, fold, and pass to girl friends at the bus-stand. They were sweet treasures and we need to bring the lost art of letter writing back to life!

Letters used to be the chief means of communication. Sending news, keeping distance-separated lovers connected, sharing a tasty bit of gossip or making a friend half way around the world. Letters recorded our thoughts, our history. I have a few lovely letters that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother during WWII. They are some of my dearest possessions; filled with love, sentiment, news and beautiful penmanship I've ever seen.

Where are these splendid treasures, in the 21st century? Do they still have a place today, where we can't be bothered to type full words, use proper grammar or punctuation? I believe, they are slipping, but we must give this art a revival!

Reasons

Let me give you five reasons why I think letter writing must be brought back.

Handwriting is personal. There is nothing quite like the personal touch of a handwritten letter. The paper, filled with the ink of someone's pen; and the handwriting unmistakably their own. This handwriting took effort, training (or lack of it) - it isn't a font downloaded from a website.

A text or an e-mail is just a convenient way to convey a few thoughts, or a list. But, letter writing takes time, effort and reflection. Physically writing out a page of words takes more time and energy than hastily typing out a few lines of text or e-mail.

We tend to save letters. Letters can't just be deleted in a whim. They get tucked away in drawers, files and boxes, for later enjoyment.

The simple joy of getting something in the mailbox, besides bills! I don't know about you, but I used to be excited to check my mail. There is nothing quite like walking in with that little envelope, peeling it open and taking in the gift it offers...truly. That ended years ago as my mailbox became a bill box. Long after we are gone, no one will care about the million texts we may have sent. But, a letter can be passed down to the generations to come, they are a legacy. Can you think of a single e-mail that would be worth printing and storing away?

Handwriting is part of our identity, and yet, we have little need for it in this digital age, making a letter all the more special and personal.

Despite murmurings about its pending collapse, I hope the Sri Lankan Postal Service will live on and people will be able to send letters for many more years. I also hope, more people are encouraged to resurrect this lost art of communication through the handwritten word. There are so many reasons to write a letter to someone you care about, if only to know that it might bring a much-needed smile to his or her face.