Remember back in the olden days when we used to email each other? I still pop open my inbox each morning in hopes of a real email. Usually all I find in there are 15 or so ads from places I only shop once or twice a year, so delete delete delete. There are a few subscriptions that arrive by email to articles and quotes, and I read those every day.
It’s a rare day to find a personal email, but I still skim the list of new mail, looking for that shiny gold nugget amidst the rubble.
I want to hear your stories. I want to know the details. I want to peek behind the scenes, beyond what you post on Facebook and Instagram. I want to know the real you, not the social media persona.
I miss snail mail, too. I have a couple friends that still send cards from time to time, and I display those cards for weeks. I love the effort behind snail mail. I had a friend who lived a few hours away from me in college, and he would decorate the envelopes before he’d send them, sketching in a little drawing on the back or coloring the entire envelope in a hodgepodge of shades; receiving mail from him was like receiving a gift, a treasure.
I don’t send as many emails and snail mails as I used to write once upon a time. I suppose in some ways I’m sitting around waiting for an answer to some of the big ones I sent out, or looking for feedback on the 600 zillion blog posts and articles I have floating around the corners of the Internet. Is silence the answer I’ve been awaiting? I hope not. I hope somewhere out there, you’re all coloring envelopes for me with your favorite colored pencils or roaming the aisles at the supermegamondomart, looking for just the right card. Maybe you have a draft email that you keep coming back to and revising, deleting and adding until it’s just right.
Tell me a secret. Tell me a joke. Tell me what your kids did that was awesome or embarrassing or awesomely embarrassing. Tell me who you have a crush on or why you think that new movie totally sucks. I want to know more than the character limit on your text message app will allow. Can we bring one on one communication back into fashion? Who doesn’t love a note written just to them, just for them? Status updates are handy and fun, but there’s none of the mystery and excitement of a new message in my email inbox or a hand addressed envelope arriving in with the mix of bills.
Can I challenge you to write an email today or drop someone a snail mail note? I will be generous in my challenge and say that those messages today don’t even have to be to me…but I want to hear from you soon. I want to hear all about it, whatever “it” is.