The Pen is Mightier than the e-mail! (A Challenge)

Gents!

I ask you truly....

Have we nearly lost our souls in trade; exchanged for the ease of the plastic keyboard and cell phone text, to be technologically dumbed down into a cesspool of the masses, unwittingly encompassed by the modern world encroaching the simple loveliness that "IS" the hand written letter!!??


Nay!

I believe, as I am sure, as some souls here do as well.
Those that do not fit within the pre-set shapes and crevices that have been ascertained for us before we could raise a hand for the love of timeless tradition and common-sense goodness and virtues.

I issue a challenge for myself, and to the rest of those who stumble onto this,...

To take the time to put away your text messaging and emails for a time, now and then, and at the very least, hand-write one letter a month, in your very own penmanship, to a friend, relative, love or business companion. Then move on to two a month, then three and so on as you see and feel fit to do so.

Keep the stamps well placed upon the ivory wings of the parchment, carried by the postmen over the miles from one hand to the other.

...personable,.. quaint,... tangible in its charm and timelessness.

The e-mail age is a curse in so far as the "personal touch", but it also brings other problems which sap some of the ease and speed it promises, and that is the endless ferreting out of useless "pass-it-on" e-mails and spam that I have to deal with constantly.
The ease of e-mail has made it a simple matter for friends and family to mindlessly pass on tidbits of humor or rumors of impending doom with alacrity.
This would never have happend if people had to sit down and write out what they were thinking and then affix postage to said electronic garbage.

luvmysuper said:

The e-mail age is a curse in so far as the "personal touch", but it also brings other problems which sap some of the ease and speed it promises, and that is the endless ferreting out of useless "pass-it-on" e-mails and spam that I have to deal with constantly.
The ease of e-mail has made it a simple matter for friends and family to mindlessly pass on tidbits of humor or rumors of impending doom with alacrity.
This would never have happend if people had to sit down and write out what they were thinking and then affix postage to said electronic garbage.

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How True!.... very well put.

I used to write letters. A LOT. With several nice fountain pens, italic nibs and different ink colors. As many as 12 per day on the weekends and 2 or 3 per day during the work week.

But I stopped. Why?

Because the occasional responses - if I received any at all - were almost always in the form of one or two sentence emails, Facebook postings, IMs, text messages or the like.

So I've largely given up and resumed corresponding the way people do with me.

WhosYerBob said:

I used to write letters. A LOT. With several nice fountain pens, italic nibs and different ink colors. As many as 12 per day on the weekends and 2 or 3 per day during the work week.

But I stopped. Why?

Because the occasional responses - if I received any at all - were almost always in the form of one or two sentence emails, Facebook postings, IMs, text messages or the like.

So I've largely given up and resumed corresponding the way people do with me.

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Don't do it for the responses. Do it for yourself.

WhosYerBob said:

I used to write letters. A LOT. With several nice fountain pens, italic nibs and different ink colors. As many as 12 per day on the weekends and 2 or 3 per day during the work week.

But I stopped. Why?

Because the occasional responses - if I received any at all - were almost always in the form of one or two sentence emails, Facebook postings, IMs, text messages or the like.

So I've largely given up and resumed corresponding the way people do with me.

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Boy, that sure was a LOT of letter writing,... like running a marathon in a full out sprint!

So, by what you've told me, the unfortunate facts seem as if you've allowed the laziness of others dictate and affect your actions and reasoning in view of hand writing a letter regardless of any love you've had for doing so, simply because everyone else is doing it?

Hmmmm,....

That's pretty much my point exactly,.... don't let others dictate your actions thus leaving the craftsmanship of hand letter writing fall into the annuls of history and the far away past. Soon to be the forgotten past!

To me, using a fountain pen in my correspondence is like using a Gillette DE to shave.
A rememberance of a better time, when the craftsmen making the things in our lives made them to last for generations, when people were courteous and civil with one another.
Kind of like the people here at B&B.

Gray Wolf said:

To me, using a fountain pen in my correspondence is like using a Gillette DE to shave.
A rememberance of a better time, when the craftsmen making the things in our lives made them to last for generations, when people were courteous and civil with one another.
Kind of like the people here at B&B.

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Well said!

Bully!,....Bully! (In my best Teddy Roosevelt voice!)

slaglerock said:

don't do it for the responses. Do it for yourself.

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Exactly!

So you are sitting at a computer and posting an electronic message to a group of individuals that are sitting at computers reading electronic messages and you are complaining about the lost art of letter writing?

As a life long "chicken scratcher" I must say I love email. You wouldn't want to receive a letter from me as you probably won't be able to read it.

mmack66 said:

So you are sitting at a computer and posting an electronic message to a group of individuals that are sitting at computers reading electronic messages and you are complaining about the lost art of letter writing?

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Yep, I was waiting for that response from when I first opened up this topic of mine,... it was only a matter of time someone somewhere threw it in the mix.

Interesting what some view as a "complaining" of sorts, very amusing.

I'm guessing that there's always the possibility that you may have missed a key section initially written in the very beginning?,...

Quote,

"To take the time to put away your text messaging and emails for a time, now and then, and at the very least, hand-write one letter a month, in your very own penmanship, to a friend, relative, love or business companion. Then move on to two a month, then three and so on as you see and feel fit to do so."

Key phrases,...

"for a time",..."now and then",..."at the very least",..."once a month."

Yaniel said:

As a life long "chicken scratcher" I must say I love email. You wouldn't want to receive a letter from me as you probably won't be able to read it.

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Some are called to be artists, others to be farmers, still others iron workers, carpenters, and so on. Regardless of your place or profession, everyone has their ability to hone their skills of common penmanship.

Maybe the chicken scratch you speak of is a result of not flexing your muscles of writing? I know I can scribble things down that I can't even read later on if I'm not actually taking my time.
I think that is just a common occurrence for that sort of thing.
One must take the time to write well, and not rush it. That's all.

Circa1929 said:

Yep, I was waiting for that response from when I first opened up this topic of mine,... it was only a matter of time someone somewhere threw it in the mix.

Interesting what some view as a "complaining" of sorts, very amusing.

I'm guessing that there's always the possibility that you may have missed a key section initially written in the very beginning?,...

Quote,

"To take the time to put away your text messaging and emails for a time, now and then, and at the very least, hand-write one letter a month, in your very own penmanship, to a friend, relative, love or business companion. Then move on to two a month, then three and so on as you see and feel fit to do so."

Key phrases,...

"for a time",..."now and then",..."once a month."

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No, because I first read the actual beginning of your message-

"I ask you truly....

Have we nearly lost our souls in trade; exchanged for the ease of the plastic keyboard and cell phone text, to be technologically dumbed down into a cesspool of the masses, unwittingly encompassed by the modern world encroaching the simple loveliness that "IS" the hand written letter!!??"

mmack66 said:

No, because I first read the actual beginning of your message-

"I ask you truly....

Have we nearly lost our souls in trade; exchanged for the ease of the plastic keyboard and cell phone text, to be technologically dumbed down into a cesspool of the masses, unwittingly encompassed by the modern world encroaching the simple loveliness that "IS" the hand written letter!!??"

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You just quoted a question. A "part" of a whole. Do you read Dickens or Whitman in part and expect to get the whole story? Do you generally make assumptions based on parts of the whole?

Besides,...what relation does that have to do with me writing this here, online? I suppose the desperateness to find irony, to poke jest at another, is the coal to the burner for you perhaps?

Obviously, you are just looking to be senselessly obnoxious and argumentative.

There is something special about something hand written. Just after my dad died a few years ago I received a letter from his younger brother. Now my dad was born in 1919 and my uncle I think in 1920. Five pages written on a small translucent note paper in fountain pen letting me know things he wanted to share about my dad.

Well it wowed me. 82 years old and and doing things the way he and his brothers were taught.

These days I try to keep a bit of this alive by giving books with a note on the flyleaf. Sympathy, thank you, and other notes are hand written. Oh. . . and Christmas cards . . . always with a bit of a personal note.

I've had interesting timing in my life. I was taught cursive script in grade three with a fountain pen when writing a cheque with a ball point pen was not considered legal. When I took my first year of physics and chemistry we were the last class that had to learn how to use a slide rule.

Merry Christmas

Alacrity59 said:

There is something special about something hand written. Just after my dad died a few years ago I received a letter from his younger brother. Now my dad was born in 1919 and my uncle I think in 1920. Five pages written on a small translucent note paper in fountain pen letting me know things he wanted to share about my dad.

Well it wowed me. 82 years old and and doing things the way he and his brothers were taught.

These days I try to keep a bit of this alive by giving books with a note on the flyleaf. Sympathy, thank you, and other notes are hand written. Oh. . . and Christmas cards . . . always with a bit of a personal note.

I've had interesting timing in my life. I was taught cursive script in grade three with a fountain pen when writing a cheque with a ball point pen was not considered legal. When I took my first year of physics and chemistry we were the last class that had to learn how to use a slide rule.

Merry Christmas

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Thank you VERY much for sharing that!
That story about your father's brother is just fantastic to say the least!
There really IS something about how "personal" it can feel, (and such a good feeling too!), when you receive something like that.

That's why, let's say, even if you're applying for a job, and you get a hand written letter from the company or shop you've applied to, even if its a rejection letter, you know it is something that person took the time out to do. There is an impression to be made with ink flowing from a human being's tool of communication that requires his body to form and craft rather than tap out in a repeated motion.
Sure, we'll have our technology, we'll probably always have it, sure we'll use it, but we dare not abandon things such as this!

Again,... awesome story!

I have more in common with people in their 80s and older than I do with those of my own generation,.... I'm happy to say!

See the thing is, once upon a time those beloved traditions you write of were once derided buy the people who spoke face to face or sent smoke signals or communicated in other ways. But times changed. They still change. People don't write much anymore because they have other faster was of communicating and it's near instant instead of having to wait weeks for a response and that's even if your letter makes it to its destination.With email, texts and Facebook whether it gets there or not, you know instantly and can send it again and the person on the other end doesn't think you don't like them anymore.

I'm rather glad I don't have to write much of anything anymore.

luvmysuper said:

The e-mail age is a curse in so far as the "personal touch", but it also brings other problems which sap some of the ease and speed it promises, and that is the endless ferreting out of useless "pass-it-on" e-mails and spam that I have to deal with constantly. .....

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Other than bills, the majority of my "real" mail is junk, too.

Johnny_Z said:

See the thing is, once upon a time those beloved traditions you write of were once derided buy the people who spoke face to face or sent smoke signals or communicated in other ways. But times changed. They still change. People don't write much anymore because they have other faster was of communicating and it's near instant instead of having to wait weeks for a response and that's even if your letter makes it to its destination.With email, texts and Facebook whether it gets there or not, you know instantly and can send it again and the person on the other end doesn't think you don't like them anymore.

I'm rather glad I don't have to write much of anything anymore.

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So, those people you refer to, "derided" letter writing??? (derided= treated with contempt)
That makes no sense....

Not to mention that if they spoke face to face or sent smoke signals, you'd be referring to an age before most written communication was achieved for majority of mankind.

Hence, the people, and or, "times" I speak of, and the "beloved" tradition, is still beloved by those who understand them. Unless we've lost the ability to form cruves that form the alphabet, I think nothing has changed within man in regards to his ability,... just the lack of gumption to do so has changed.
That, and a sorry sense of a generation gap where at some point, parents, teachers and common realatives were either pushed aside, or were raised themselves in an environment where anything "traditional" was suddenly "bad",.... (hmm,... the 60s come to mind here).

So, wherever you were trying to go ...that's not the point of hand writing a letter,... its not rocket science, and maybe, for some, that's the issue. We've sped up our lives so much, that we're not actually "living" life,.. but rather we are merely going through the motions, frail, feeble shells that resemble men and women, but nothing more?

Stating the obviousness of the speed of emails and texts have nothing to do with my challenge to people to take the time to hand write a letter from time to time and so on.

I'm starting to think that there is a serious generation gap whereby at some point, at some time, they were shut off to such things that others know well and appreciate.
One would think that trying something out of the ordinary would be alluring, interesting,.... not so for some. Very sad to read this.


One last thought for the day,......

THESAURUS!