With just two weeks until the November 5 election, both Trump and Harris remain neck-and-neck in polling
americas1 hour ago
The letter comes from Joyce, my 75-year-old mother-in-law in England. It is always written on two sides of a single sheet, on good-quality paper that is devoid of fussy lines and margins, with no texturing or lavender scenting. It is simple, crisp white paper. She writes in an easy, cursive script, a clear but relaxed style that does not seek to impress. Her words sit comfortably on both sides of the page; her thoughts flow neatly from one paragraph to the next. There no is jarring ending in the final paragraph, no postscript, no OMG or LOL, no smiley icons. Just words.
The woman who writes these letters is recently widowed. Her husband was for decades Britain’s most popular angling columnist, filing his columns without fail until five days before his death at the age of 88. My mother-in-law nursed him at home for the final three years of his life, until he died, next to her, in his sleep.
Her letter often takes four or five days to reach me but the feel of it instantly breaks through time and space. Sitting with the letter in my hands, I immediately envision her: There she is at the dining table, a cup of tea to her right, the radio switched off or turned down, her thoughts flowing through her fingers and onto the page.
Her letters inform us of the weather, of the kindness of neighbours, of the bureaucratic hassles of death, of the condolence letters she has received — in short, of all the bits and pieces of kick-starting life without the man she loved for 50 years.
Once finished, she puts on her coat and bonnet and walks to the postbox, just in time for the 4:30 p.m. pickup.
For her, writing a letter at a time of grief is part of seeing things through, a sign of the civility and commitment that bind societies. For her generation, duty and courtesy are as normal as breathing.
Will this fading generation, I find myself quietly asking, also be the last to write letters? Messages crafted by hand rather than bits of binary code? Writing that carries emotions rather than emoticons?
Letter-writing is among our most ancient of arts. Think of letters and the mind falls on Paul of Tarsus, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Austen, Mark Twain; on love letters written during the American Civil War, or letters written to a parent by a frightened soldier at the battlefront.
A good handwritten letter is a creative act, and not just because it is a visual and tactile pleasure. It is a deliberate act of exposure, a form of vulnerability, because handwriting opens a window on the soul in a way that cyber communication can never do. You savour their arrival and later take care to place them in a box for safe keeping.
Yes, e-mail is a wonderful invention. It links people across the world, destroying in an instant the hurdle of geography that confronts snail mail. Yet it is by its nature ephemeral and lacks the spark of character that only handwriting can provide. When you get an e-mail, you can never be sure that you are the only recipient — or even that it’s original. We have always liked to pore over the letters of great figures like Winston Churchill and Abigail Adams for the insight this offers into their lives: the writing, the crossings-out, the very feel of history on paper.
Sitting here, savouring the imminent arrival of the next letter from my mother-in-law, I wonder what will be the legacy of the digital letter-writing age.
Catherine Field is a journalist based in Paris
With just two weeks until the November 5 election, both Trump and Harris remain neck-and-neck in polling
americas1 hour ago
Blockchain technology stocks have also benefited from growing interest
markets1 hour ago
This comes as IMF raised the Emirates' 2024 growth forecast earlier in May on the back of strong economic growth
business1 hour ago
The 78,000 folks who live in this strip of mountains, forests and rain-dashed coast haven't been wrong about their presidential pick in almost half a century
americas1 hour ago
The race is overshadowed by fears of violence or a refusal by Trump to recognise the results if he loses
americas1 hour ago
Dubai Islamic Bank elaborated that the relevant account holders have been pre-emptively informed about the outstanding transactions
business1 hour ago
Light to moderate winds are set to blow, freshening at times
weather2 hours ago
Acquisition of chemicals makers by Adnoc marks a key milestone in UAE’s net zero goals
energy3 hours ago