snail mail | a melange and perfect words

before i share with you some of the adorable pieces i sent out last week, i want to post some beautiful words about snail mail. these words are written by user "epistler" on the fountain pen network but were reposted by missive maven:

"There have been times when I was about to post a link or a comment to a friend's Facebook wall, and I decided to email instead—to emphasize that this communication was a gift tothem, not a performance for the world; and then beyond that sometimes I have thought "No. That's still not a clear enough emphasis that this is for you." And it doesn't have to be really personal stuff. It could just be pointing out an author or an article or such of interest.

It just feels like a more directed, caring, generous, mindful, focused, gift-giving act to write to someone in post rather than to just post a link on their FB wall. And there are many dimensions to this: the time cost, the stationery cost, the postage cost, the extra time that writing with a pen takes, the better thought-out product that usually results, the individual expressions involved in paper/pen/ink/stamp choice (saying things perhaps about the writer, perhaps about the writer's perception of the receiver, perhaps about the writer's perception of his or her relationship with the receiver) and in the uniqueness of handwriting, the giving of a physical object that was once yours and was made with your own hands for a specific intended—much as if you had knitted them a sweater, the opportunity for the receiver to have and to keep a physical reminder of being thought of and cared about which has, among its significances, the role of being an enduring manifestation of the otherwise evanescent, abstract gift of time—the time taken to craft the letter."

doesn't that just perfectly sum up why letter-writing is so special in this day and age?

my mail this week includes, spring-like boxes with chocolates and bunnies for my aunt and my neice, sexy postcards for my mother and an old friend, a giant 8.5x11 invitation letter for my correspondence club partner, and an envelope made out of the queen's face for a friend in britain.