Email and texting can be quick and immediate - depending if the recipient replies within a minute, and while most of us today would be lost without internet connection, and checking our e-messages every day, I still think there's something special about receiving a hand written note in the U.S. Mail , or card from a friend wishing you well.
The other day I read educators in some districts are no longer going to teach cursive writing in school. In my opinion, a sad change in curriculum. I remember my own grade school years and thought about the dedicated nuns and how they placed such importance on their students learning good penmanship. Besides being a discipline in perseverance , we were learning a skill - knowing how to write our thoughts would allow us to communicate in another away. Everyday we would practice writing letters of the alphabet, then whole words , and eventually full sentences over and over until it met with Sister's approval.
I then thought about the handwritten letters and journals throughout history - many of them held sacred , displayed in museums and other great archives - letters of popes, poet, kings, queens, presidents and layman describing their place and time in the world. Not only do they tell us of a particular era, but also a part of who they were are preserved in the actual writing of their own words, in their own hand.
Finally, I thought about letters and notes written to me by those I know and have known, those I love and hold dear - some no longer on this earth. To re-read their words written personally to me brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart. In their hand written word, a part of them still near.
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