letters

[ironymaiden]

ten plus years ago, I wrote paper letters and cards on the regular. I got out of the habit for various reasons.

I've been writing Dad 4-5 cards a week, because he likes getting mail. I'm enjoying it - feeling a sense of connection (even though it's a monologue), using my fountain pen, practicing my handwriting, getting to shop for cards, stamps, and ink.

It does seem to use up my journaling energy, where whatever is on my mind goes off in a letter to Dad. Then they get read by anyone that's around him, so in some ways I'm also writing my mom and my cousin and my brothers. The information asymmetry makes phone calls with them odd.

Comments

[buhrger]

The information asymmetry makes phone calls with them odd.
that's how i feel with people who still read my LJ DW, but never post anything themselves any more. (not throwing shade your way, btw!)

[ironymaiden]

well, I don't comment enough either. i find myself doing a lot of my reading on the bus, and i tend to scroll, scroll, scroll and not stop to do crap typing on tiny not-keyboard. sorry to let you shout into the void. (i've enjoyed hearing about Scintillation. I hope to make it to a future event, it sounds fab.)

[buhrger]

totally fab! (see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2027413000/scintillation/posts/2311801 inre: next year's scintillation)

[scarlettina]

Odd it may be, but you are doing a real kindness writing to your dad this way. It is, in the classic sense, a mitzvah.

[garyomaha]

I haven't handwritten much for years. It's gotten to the point where, if I need to sign my full name, including middle name, I struggle to insert the middle name. My handwriting was never very good so I've always figured recipients would rather easily read a typed message than struggle with a written one. (We receive annual typed holiday letters from a friend and the personal note he scrawls at the bottom is indecypherhable -- only supporting my decision not to write stuff myself.) Still...it's lovely when someone with readable writing sends something.