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Used to be, folks would complain about the slow speed of the Post Office. Took forever to get a letter, they said. Stuff got lost. Cost too much for a stamp. Too much junk mail. On and on…. Me, I always loved the Postal Service. Send a letter to some backwash address in the Ozarks and 2 days later, some mailman would haul up, by mule if necessary, to deliver it. Straight to their door, no matter where. For 25 cents or so. Costs a little more now, but not much. If that wasn’t efficient, what was?
E-mail, that’s what. Or Twitter. Or Facebook. Hardly costs anything, my advocates for killing the Post Office say. And …. you don’t have to lick an envelope. Well, maybe it is cheaper. Unless you count in the cost of your computer. And high speed internet. And a printer. Ink cartridges. Cellphone. Subscription costs. Okay, you still don’t have to lick an envelope.
I suppose most of us haven’t gotten a real letter since that Christmas card back in 1982. And that was probably a ‘form’ letter Xeroxed to all the kinfolk what new grandkids were born and who graduated from what school (but skipping the criminal arrests and convictions and the drug rehab news). Now, unless you took typing, you have to hunt and peck a message, which explains Twitter. Kind of cuts down on the length of any message you got to poke it out on some itty bitty keyboard. And syntax, well, who’s got the time anymore, really, when a few choice syllables abbreviated to their purest form will suffice?
I finally noticed my pals who get my letters never wrote back. Lost art. I’m sure they thought it was quirky and quaint, a handwritten letter. Maybe a little wordy in this new fast paced world. Now I notice the responses to my e-mails pretty much indicate they don’t even read these with any depth of understanding. Couple word response, let me know they got some kind of message from me. I suppose I could lament the passing of the letter as artform, about as useful as crying over the demise of newspapers or books or illuminated manuscripts.
But I will say, I never worried about my letter inadvertently going to 100 other people when I accidentally hit REPLY ALL, I don’t care how many envelopes I didn’t have to lick. Sometimes maybe efficiency isn’t all that we’re after.
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