Write a REAL letter!

When was the last time you wrote a real letter? I mean a hand-written personal letter; a letter to a friend or a family member. You can't count an email, an sms text message, a birthday card or even a note to your child's teacher as a real letter (although, if this was hand-written, it's a good start). Can you even remember the last letter you wrote of this kind? Consider this - do your friends and family members remember what your hand-writing looks like?

If your experience is similar to many today, the personal letter is almost an antique. Yet, over history, personal letters have conveyed significant meaning and recorded major, and not so major, events in our lives. These include the love letters which Napoleon wrote to Josephine, the many war-time letters written by soldiers of World War One and World War Two to loved ones at home, and the letters written by explorers such as Captain Cook as voyages of discovery were made in the 18th century. In fact, the personal letter was once (and no so long ago!) the primary means of communication between people separated by distance.

How, then, has the personal letter been so massively usurped? Now that we have the means to send a message instantly to the other side of the world, via email, for instance, are we too impatient to be heard (or read) that we can't wait the time it takes for the same message to be written in a personal letter and sent by postal mail? Would the message or information you wanted to communicate be so horribly out-of-date if it had to be delayed by the time it took for the post to be delivered, one or two days within the country, and around two weeks for international post? Yes, email is free, but that's not the only reason we rely on it so much more. We can also send the same electronic letter to many friends, cutting down on time.

Each Christmas, a mass-produced personal letter is the choice many make to update family and friends of the year's events. The hand-written letter tucked into a Christmas card is an increasingly rare event, but each year, my parents receive exactly this from one of their friends. This friend writes a letter several pages in length, always filled with personalised information about her own family, tailored to my parents and what they would want to know about their friend's past year.

You know how this is going to end, don't you? Think of a friend or family member you know would love to receive a hand-written letter. Think of the pleasure they would feel when they checked their letterbox and discovered a hand-addressed envelope containing a hand-written letter from you. Write that person a letter. If you're still not convinced, think about how wonderful you would feel if, when you check your letterbox tomorrow afternoon, there was a lovely letter from a dear family member or friend waiting for you to enjoy.

I'm off now - I have a letter to write.

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