8-Letter Letters
I love you
I miss you
I am sorry
Let’s meet
These are just a few 8-letter phrases that evoke the humans within us, make us feel things, and make our life a lot more colourful. With technology, it has never been easy to evoke these feelings with people we care about. Amongst our busy lives, juggling between a hundred things at once, how many of us really send those texts to the people we want to send those texts to?
Texts are nice, but today I want to speak about letters. Physical, hand-written letters. There’s something very charming about sending and receiving hand-written letters in the age of snaps that disappear immediately. Of course, letters take time to reach the other person. Of course, it might not look pretty if your handwriting has become worse. But it is raw, authentic and personal on a level that these digital platforms will never be able to achieve. You cannot delete words, you cannot correct mistakes without leaving marks behind, and you cannot use emojis or stickers. The effort that goes behind writing a letter, framing the exact sentence that brings about the feelings and emotions that you want the reader to feel, is something that is unparalleled. Add to it an element of surprise and you’ve made someone’s day.
Texts are nice, but what happens when you lose the data? Or if the corporate overlords decide that you’ve to start paying to access chats that are more than two years old? Of the hundreds of text messages that you receive every day, how many such sweet texts will you remember? Physical letters stand the test of time. It is with that person, for as long as the paper holds good or until it gets destroyed in an act of nature (or until the person doesn’t want you anymore and feeds it to fire).
I have written a few letters to my friends, mostly accompanied by gifts. I am cheesy like that, yes. But I thoroughly enjoy the process of doing this for the people I care about and making their days a little extra special. So, if you are thinking about sending one of the above 8-letter phrases (or anything else, really) to any of your friends/family/loved ones, why not do it the old-fashioned way instead of sending them a text? Break the monotony. Give them a surprise. You’ll both have a sweet memory to cherish and a physical reminder of the bond that you share.
With love, Sibi