What It’s Like to be a Letter Writer

It’s a little like this:

• It takes time. Therefore, you have time. Or, you make time available to devote to the activity.
• It’s a responsibility to correspond. You are a responsible person, with a sense of duty.
• You are spending significant chunks of time on people you have never met and often have never seen, yet they have been to your house and often know your business.
• It’s contemplative, grounding and calming.
• The sound of pen or pencil on paper is not only known to you, but becomes a soundtrack to your life.
• It is rewarding, but not without some investment—of time, a little money and thought.
• You have letters, envelopes, paper, stamps and probably a favorite pen. They are all tucked away in various places. Maybe you have an unfinished letter on your desk, a letter you just received tucked behind your notebook cover, and stamps in your top right desk drawer.
• You care about people you have never met. Often deeply.

Writing letters is very much a craft, a skill and an art. At some point it becomes a necessity, and that is when you know you are a letter writer.