Connecting with a Letter to my Friend

It might be because I was born before the internet overtook the world, that I remember writing cursive with a pencil and getting a hard nub on my middle finger. (Which I still have.) I wonder if they still teach cursive writing in school? It seems that the only time we write by hand is to fill our forms or to sign our name on a document. If you're my age or older, you'll remember writing long letters to friends who were away at camp or sitting just behind you in class. You'll remember writing Christmas cards to your grandparents, handing in all your homework by hand, and writing poems for mom on Mother's day. I know each of my highschool friend's handwriting; who simply writes, who can't help drawing doodles to illustrate the point, who writes straight across the page, and who doesn't. I can't say that about anybody else after high-school except for my parents.

Sometimes I feel strange that I care so much about keeping handwritten letters alive, and I realize that I've already written about this before, but that's okay. When I think about it, I've always enjoyed writing letters, essays and stories, drawing cartoons of my friends and collecting stamps. I got hooked on stamps when my uncle gave me his collection. I joined a philately club in elementary school, and spent my pocket money on envelopes full of stamps from places I never knew existed. I don't collect anymore, but I still have my collection and every once in a while I look through my books, and enjoy looking at my elementary school handwriting on the labels that divide each section by country. Once, when I was living in Montreal, I found a collection in a pile of garbage on the side of the road, I took it to a shop and sold it for $300! So you see, stamp collecting is cool! It's been cool since 1840 when the Penny Black, the first stamp ever, was printed.

I have a special place where I keep the letters I've received over the years from my friends. I don't usually read them, but every once in a while, when I'm reorganizing my office, I take a look at a few. Most were written from far away or from another country; Scotland, France, Hawaii, Portugal, Japan, England, Toronto, Montreal.  Now it's my time to be far away, and I'm enjoying writing every morning with my cup of coffee. The letters capture my mood and who I miss the most in that moment. I imagine that person with me at the table, and I feel better. I miss them a tiny bit less. Here's a little tune called "World Map" by Thiago Pethit
- the first verse is " Write me a letter without "sender".