In this digital age of text messaging, email and AI, very few people take the time to sit down and pen a letter. Letter writing may be seen as a lost art — something that went out with corsets, carriage rides, and black-and-white movies.
I remember the first time a high school classmate told me she had a pen pal. At that time, I had a budding interest in writing and the thought of writing to someone overseas filled me with great excitement. I followed my friend’s instructions and was soon communicating with my pen pal from a foreign land. So now you know, I come from an era when people did write letters, either for fun or out of necessity.
Some very famous letters are those written by the apostles in the Bible, letters from the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife Josephine, and letters from Celie to God and her sister Nettie in The Color Purple. These letters still have purpose and meaning today and are widely read or referred to.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of writing letters.
- Self expression – Sometimes when we try to express our feelings to someone we become tongue-tied. Writing a letter allows you the freedom to state those feelings in a way you might not be able to if the person were sitting across from you at the dining table, for example.
- Tangible – Letters, like paperback books, are tangible. Ebooks, email, ecards have become the norm in our digital age, but they don’t give us the tactile satisfaction that a handwritten letter or a paperback gives. Letters that have been passed down through a family carry great sentimental value. Imagine the memories and the emotions evoked by holding a letter from an ancestor who has long passed on.
- Therapeutic – Writing a letter can be therapeutic to the writer as well as the receiver. As the writer puts his thoughts on paper, he releases feelings he didn’t realize he had and is able to express them with more clarity. The receiver also gets a better understanding of the person’s feelings.
- Handwriting – You get to practice your handwriting when you write a letter. Whenever I sign an important document, I notice how much my handwriting has deteriorated. I attribute this to typing more and writing less with a pen.
- Connections – Last but not least, letter writing helps us connect with our loved ones and with strangers. During COVID, letter writing got a boost as people wrote letters to friends and relatives. I recently came across an article about a letter-writing campaign to encourage readers to write letters to the authors of banned books letting them know how much they appreciate their work. What a lovely gesture!
Letter writing has many benefits, and, as you can see, it does not have to be a thing of the past. We can still write letters today — if only to improve our handwriting!
You may wish to read some of the letters mentioned above as well as this one written by a character from my debut novel Coming Out of Egypt.
My dearest Cicely,
I know you must be wondering why I haven’t called or come to see you. It pains me to
say this, but after you told me what your father had done to you, I realized we could no longer
have a relationship. You know my feelings about things of that nature. It appalled me to hear
about the Garcia girls, and it sickened me to know the same thing had happened to someone
so precious and important to me. Maybe if I had heard it from you first it would not have
been so shocking.
Cicely, for what it’s worth, I want you to know I still love you. I don’t think I can ever
stop. Part of me will always belong to you. But, my darling, how could I stand at the altar
and watch you walk up on your father’s arm, and have him give you over to me? It would be
a sacrilege. A life for us is now impossible. Even though I don’t blame you for what happened,
I cannot, will not have such a man for a father-in-law. Just remember this, I love you and
always will.
If you haven’t read this book yet, I encourage you to get your hands on a copy. It will captivate you as it has done many others. When you are done reading, please drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Angela is a blogger and author of Christian women’s fiction and Christian romance. Her latest release is Making Music Together.
