Wednesday, August 15, 2012

handwritten charm

we so rarely send handwritten letters these days, and i sometimes think that's sad. 

mail has changed over the years.  remember 10 (or 15?) years ago when receiving an email was exciting and a letter in the post was a nuisance?  now i receive a hundred emails a day and feel thrilled when i see my name handwritten on a card in my snail-mailbox.  

we are taught standard letter shapes in school that we practice, but then we each develop unique peculiarities in letter shape, slope, sharpness, size, and spacing.  eventually our handwriting becomes identifiable as our own and continues to slowly change over time.  i find this fascinating!  

Photo: link
i also find it comforting that i can recognize the handwriting of my immediate family and best friends.  yet, i would not recognize the handwriting of other people who i currently spend the most time with: colleagues, my flatmate, most friends... 

a handwritten message provides a special intimacy that cannot be duplicated in modern times, i think. 


that's one reason why i still send postcards when i travel.  i like the idea that the people i care about know what my handwriting looks like, especially my niece and nephew.  

despite my lack of typed capital letters, i do capitalize when writing by hand.   this was a postcard i sent during a trip to greece last year.   


the front of the postcard probably looked something like this:



ps. if anyone wants to send a postcard or a note, just ask and i'll give you my address :)

6 comments:

heroineworshipper said...

You should send us postcards.

Unsui said...

I am in, Only request would be to get hand written postcards from your globe trots

Sakib said...

I've never noticed that you don't use capital letters! :)

Anonymous said...

i totally agree

Unknown said...

i'll write back to anything i receive that has a return address!

James Allen said...

I love postcards, I keep all the ones I'm sent and have now managed to cover an entire wall with them! Particularly now I'm in Australia, they're a great way to remind myself of distant family and friends.