The one constant in our daily lives is the element of change. We are, more often than not, consciously aware of shifts, since they tend to affect us, almost immediately, in one form or another, such as the seemingly ever escalating electricity rates and cost of gasoline. And then there are the subliminal mutations which occur as sedately as the slow ebb of a falling tide. For instance, the gradual disappearance of the photo studio and public telephones from the façade of everyday life.
One transition which is taking place in front of very own eyes today, is the vanishing art of handwritten letters. In this ‘instant coffee age,’ as one astute observer has framed it, we gravitate to sending emails on computers and other similar devices; or to the lightning speed option provided by smartphones, churning out a series of text messages, in a staccato rhythm. This form of bite-sized instant communication has its own version of acronyms and abbreviations, which at times, with all the emojis, bears an uncanny resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphics. (This column is not intended to be a knock on this option of transmission – it’s perfect for dire emergencies for which snail mail is no match.)
Long gone are the days, except perhaps for some of the older generation, where one sat down to indulge in the art of letter writing. In this instance, the term letter writing encompasses not only the actual writing of traditional letters, but also postcards, birthday cards, sympathy cards, marriage proposals, thank you cards (do people still say thank you?), wedding and birth announcements, and occasional cards for religious holidays, baby christenings, New Year greetings, and Valentine’s Day, among others.
Writing and mailing letters were more than an exercise of bringing family and friends up to date on the goings-on, plans and developments of one’s life, back in the day (to borrow from modern parlance) when telephones were few and far between. They were expressions of a strong desire to keep in touch and sustain friendships, which were never taken for granted. The receipt of a letter from a relative overseas (the term used before the slang ‘from foreign’ came into vogue) was often a source of great delight and would serve as the topic of conversation around the dinner table that evening. Birthday cards, especially those from grandparents with cash enclosed, and love letters, were also fountains of euphoria. These missives were treated as highly treasured possessions, carefully stored and were quite often reread by the joyous recipients.
Synonymous with letter writing, of course, is handwriting, a useful source for garnering important insight into someone’s personality, especially for those in relationships. Handwriting and penmanship go hand-in-hand, and the decline in the former will probably lead to the atrophy of the latter. (It would be interesting to see if this circumstance evolves in the Philippines, where, culturally, great emphasis is placed on developing excellent handwriting, with children being taught from an early age to hold a pencil in a specific manner.)
Anthropologists, archivists, historians, researchers and writers of historical fiction have relied for a very long time on carefully preserved handwritten letters and business correspondence as invaluable references for ways of life and the manner in which business was conducted in the past. A classic example of this resource was the publication in 2004 of Jeffrey Stollmeyer’s Diary, an invaluable record of the first ever tour of India by the West Indies, in 1948/49. Stollmeyer, who had gotten married in 1947, wrote detailed letters to his wife, Sara, who was in Trinidad, of every day’s play and events on the tour, posting the bundles at various stops along the exhausting five-month trip. Stollmeyer’s scrolls, which were truly a labour of love, were carefully preserved by Sara, leading to a pleasant surprise for West Indies fans, decades later.
Apart from the historical bearing, well secured handwritten letters of famous people, most notably past presidents of countries, authors and songwriters, have become highly sought after by antique and art collectors, who are constantly scouring auction houses and estate sales for prized items. A short step behind these collectors are the philatelists, searching for valuable stamps, preferably still attached to the envelopes with clear post office cancellations. We all shudder at the thought of how much priceless family records and information have been wantonly discarded by folks, who, in their haste to depart for foreign shores upon receipt of their ‘papers’, tossed out the apparently useless junk, only to have major regrets later.
Will the art of well crafted handwritten letters survive? Or will it vanish like the VHS cassette tape and the video library? Just as importantly, will the institution of the Post Office still exist to deliver these letters? More than likely it will. The Post Office has survived every advancement in technology to date, from teleprinters in the 1920s to fax machines in the 1960s, to computers in the 1970s, to the age of the internet, and appears destined to continue to act as “the central nervous system” of most territories.
In the music world, vinyl records, once condemned to the recycling heap with the advent of compact discs (CDs), are becoming popular once more, thanks to their unique sound which modern technology has been unable to reproduce. Are handwritten letters destined to follow the trends of the fashion world where the new becomes old, and the old rebounds? It is entirely possible. All it would take is for some celebrity to start the fad of hiring professional scribes/calligraphists to pen handwritten romantic letters to accompany the dozens of roses being sent to whoever he/she is courting.
Handwritten letters/cards convey a special charm; an amalgam of the elegant personal touch and a truly romantic melody which no computer with its impersonal printer can ever hope to emulate. These letters log the passage of time in relationships and document our history. It would be a tragedy if this irreplicable format of communication was to vanish from our everyday lives.
