"A Little Handwritten Note to Say How Important You Are"

"To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart." ~Phyllis Theroux

"The pen is mightier than the [electronic] server." ~Unknown

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call."  ~Liz Carpenter

"Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company."  ~Lord Byron

Some of the most touching moments in life, the moments worth living for, are rooted in handwritten letters.  We hold in our hands the paper carefully chosen, inscribed upon, folded and sent with care by loved ones who cared enough to patiently, pensively record in their familiar, individual script a message meant for us, mailed to us, just for us.

That precious paper remains always available for us to retrieve and reread as often as we desire to mentally and emotionally draw near once again to dear friends and family separated by time and distance.  So for those of us looking to reintroduce a little more sincerity and thoughtfulness to our otherwise frenetic lives, fifteen minutes with a pen and paper could be all it takes to make a loved one's day.

Helpful Links:

A comprehensive guide to the art of the handwritten letter: http://www.handwrittenletters.com/

A thought-provoking article on a  disappearing art of communication: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/your-look/5-ways/story/2011/08/Dont-write-off-the-joys-of-a-personal-letter/49915532/1

Online Lessons in Calligraphy and Penmanship: http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.php

Facebook: A Fickle Friendship Facilitator

"Facebook is like jail.  You sit around and waste time, write on walls and get poked by people you don't know" -Unknown

"In Facebook, it's easier to 'Like' than to 'Comment.'  In real life, it's easier to 'Like' than to 'Commit.'"

All in all, Mark Zuckerberg's a pretty smart guy.

Thanks to him and like-minded social media networking programmers, we've never been able to keep in touch with so many friends at once.  We've never been able to reconnect more easily, organize events more quickly, or solicit happy birthday wishes more effectively.

In that vein, a friend, Mr. John Headley, recently shared a very thought-provoking article about double-edged social sword that we call "Facebook:"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204660604574370450465849142.html


Mr. Headley contributed the following insights on the above article:


"I look at facebook and social netowrking sites as simply another prism through which to view the real world. To a certain degree, I actually think it makes life more intimate, but potentially more harsh. I remember when chat rooms first came out, a great many inhibitions were lost because you were basically talking out into a void. You knew people were on the other end, but you expected you'd never contact them again, and outside of a user name, they knew nothing else about you. So naturally, you said things you might never have said if it had been in the context of an in-person relationship.

"Facebook is different from that. You know who people are, and you can decide who you continue to share information with. It's really hard for me to say it's been better or worse. I mean, if I had to confine myself to the personal relationships in my immediate physical space, I'm not sure what my life would be like. Maybe less vain. I think the ability to go and seek out an entire universe of people basically anywhere to engage in personal relationships with makes a person more picky, less compromising, and more selfish.

"To a certain extent, I suppose its important to know one's self, one's strengths and weaknesses, what your propensities are. As long as there's a light at the end of the tunnel where you're actually putting it to the service of others, I don't think it's necessarily bad. But there's the darker, more self-indulgent aspect of it that needs to be reigned in. There's no doubting that we're different people because of it, but whether it is good or bad is up to us."

Worth Waiting For

"Patience may well be thought of as a gateway virtue, contributing to the growth and strength of its fellow virtues of forgiveness, tolerance, and faith." -Robert C. Oaks, The Power of Patience

"Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!" -Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience

Now, please.

We live in an on-demand age of instant gratification, an age in which pizza (or, say...Chinese stir-fried noodles?) is delivered to our doorstep in under 30 minutes while we download family pictures or movie files at speeds measured in milliseconds. 

Our world has never moved more quickly.  Our world has never been more efficient, more effective, more up-tempo than (wait for it)...NOW!*  It can be a heady sensation, speeding into the future on this crazy fiber-optic bullet train we call the Digital Age.

If only we could reduce people to 1s and 0s.  Talk about time saving!  Friendship downloaded.  Tender memory app installed.  Shared inside joke scanned and uploaded.  Successfully connected to the wi-fi network "meaningful circle of closely held companions."

It sounds silly, but how often do we inadvertently apply our frantic tech-inspired pace of life to the nurturing and maintenance of even our most treasured relationships?  We complain about a society bereft of emotional intimacy but fail to set aside an hour for a phone conversation with a parent.  We fume when a friend takes an hour to respond to a text.**  We return from a long day at work to immerse ourselves in a smart-phone or netbook screen and occasionally wonder why the attention- and affection-starved spouse on the next couch cushion over fails to truly "get us."

That fact is, while society inculcates us with the premise that our own convenience is the most precious commodity of all, the true gems of mortality, the individuals with whom we have the privilege of building families and friendships, defy temporal convenience. 

Put another way, people and patience go hand in hand.

The holistic, soul-to-soul intimacy that each of us desires from our closest associates, the cherished memories, the shared experiences, the deep mutual appreciation and familiarity that turns a "house" into a "home:" all fruits born from the faithful investment of time, diligence, sincerity, hope...in a word, "patience."

The downloading speeds and the rapidly cooling Chinese noodles can wait.  There's a long conversation on a porch to be had.  A school assignment to be gently, slowly corrected.  A ponderous piano recital to attend.  A surprise dinner to bake.  A sincere letter to write.  

The gift of time to give.

"As the Lord is patient with us, let us be patient with those we serve. Understand that they, like us, are imperfect. They, like us, make mistakes. They, like us, want others to give them the benefit of the doubt. Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Continue in Patience

*OK, actually, NOW!

**Well take your circumnavigating time there, Magellan.  No rush.