Tag: the journey of a letter
The journey of the write
When was the last time you sent a letter to someone? I don’t mean a card, I don’t mean paying a bill, I mean a letter. Taking yoru time to write out something — or even print it out — and sticking it in an envelope and sending it out?
I’ve been sending out letters, from time to time, for ages. Usually typed up, which does dampen the personality of the correspondence… But there’s something about a letter in the mail that exceeds electronic correspondence – even if Email, instant messages, social network communication, and even a telephone call are more instantly gratifying.
You take the time, you take the effort, you take the energy to convey what you are thinking – maybe it’s business, maybe it’s personal… Heck, maybe it’s intimate (think about it, guys and girls). It’s something we forget when we greedily rip open a letter and read it’s contents… Â Unless the letter itself is long and winding.
But here’s another piece to think about with a letter: The actual journey. Â Did you ever take the time to think about what your correspondence goes through, where it travels, on it’s way to its destination?
I’ve had envelopes sitting on my desk from time to time in the last few days and months… Â They’ve looked rather monotonous with an address label and return address label stuck on them, the only distinguishing characteristic on them being a number I scrawled on the back of each. Â I’ve had them all ready to go, and then it’s hit me: just what is in store for these things as they travel? Â They weren’t just being sent locally or nationally, but overseas…
A little envelope, a folded and glued piece of paper, containing other pieces of paper, Â due to travel some 5,000 miles or more. Â How many lives touch it? Â How many people see it? Â What does it experience on it’s journey? Â And just what does the recipient think or feel when it arrives? Â How do they react?
This doesn’t tell the whole story of what I am thinking, but it does give some more of an idea what a letter in the mail goes through at sort facilities:
