In an age that demands instant gratification, emails have replaced letters, and more is the pity. In letters we used to go into depths; now we skim the surface of things in order to finish and move on quickly.
If we want to include details, we attach a picture or even a video. We communicate by email and replies to questions are generally brief. Compared to letters, emails are little more than an exchange of notes.
For the most part, letter-writing has fallen by the wayside, and with it grammar: no more capitalisation of words - you know, those capital letters that make all the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse - and no more punctuation either which turns everyone into a psycho - e.g. "I like cooking my family and my pets" - or may cost you $13 million, see here.
Letter writing is an art which takes time. You sit down with a blank sheet of paper and pour out your thoughts. There is a sense of gravitas to it, a deliberate act of communicating with someone else whom you can almost image to be talking to as you write. You choose not just your words deliberately, but also your writing-paper, even your writing tool. I still treasure my Montblanc fountain pen - remember fountain pens? there was a time when a man was judged by the fountain pen he kept - with which I carried on many years of correspondence with some of the most important persons in my life.
Unfortunately, I didn't keep their letters. I always thought there would be another one but now there are only emails - and who wants to keep an email?
P.S. If you want to put me out of my misery and write me a letter, address it to P.O. Box 233, Batemans Bay NSW 2536. I'll be there, waiting for it.
