An Old Goat Reminisces

Image by krisdecurtis via FlickrIf there’s one thing today that I miss is the art of writing and receiving letters the old fashioned way. You write on a stationery or any paper of your choice, perfumed or not, taking your time mulling over what to write, and when you’re done, you post it to the nearby post office. That sort of thing.

Look at our choices today at communication. We have email, text messaging, we can create 140-word message for twitter or plurk. Then, there’s the real time functionality that Google Talk, Skype, Yahoo messaging, and other online chat platforms offer.

Several of my friends have been working overseas. It used to be they sent me letters or snail mail, varied accounts of their exploits abroad. During holidays and birthdays they send me cards. And every time, they arrived it’s very hard to contain that joy and excitement.

Today, I receive emails in lieu of letters, e-cards instead of the old fashioned one. But let me ask you – since when have you received a long email? Letters today have morphed to bulletins, updates or mere snippets in the form of emails. Perhaps in order to cope with the sheer volume and competing messages in our inbox. Has the effort to manage online communication today makes us harried and unable to send thoughtful and satisfying emails? Perhaps.

As for my friends, I know they miss me. I even suspect that they, in the strange dynamics of long distance friendship, still love me as they used to. I miss them, too. I still love them. But I miss the introspection that goes into the writing process so you get the full delineation of desires, dreams, triumphs and even losses. I so miss nailing the underlying current and tone to a letter that stops short of conveying a hurt, a rejection. I might be getting dense, but it’s been a long, long time since I read an email layered with subtleties.

If at all they’re all too pregnant with LOLs, mangled words, and other abominations. And instead of true accounts of their life I get a constant stream of generic content they found on the web. Do you wish me to data-mine all these generic content so I can have a decent inkling of the sentiment you wish to convey? Hah! Please tell me instead – no, punish me instead with unrelenting stories about your cat, and I promise not to get bored. So I will have the insatiable lust to fire back with a long email for inflicting this on me. Hahaha.

Hmmm, maybe it’s just the Yuletide season, knowing you’re thousand miles away and I’m here still rooted at the spot where you have left me. Or maybe I’m just getting old and in need of a hug.Related articles by Zemanta