Letters

A favorite quote from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams (a book given to me by an aunt):

Our correspondences show us where our intimacies lie. There is something very sensual about a letter. The physical contact of pen to paper, the time set aside to focus thoughts, the folding of the paper into the envelope, licking it closed, addressing it, a chosen stamp, and then the release of the letter to the mailbox—are all acts of tenderness.

And it doesn't stop there. Our correspondences have wings—paper birds that fly from my house to yours—flocks of ideas crisscrossing the country. Once opened, a connection is made. We are not alone in the world. (p. 84)

Already—the book was published in 1991 about events in the early 1980s—the practice of writing letters seems outdated, replaced by e-mail and weblogs. When was the last time I sat down to write a real letter (not just send a card), with pen and paper?