From my hands to yours

I love snail mail.

Sending it. Receiving it. Stamps. Envelopes. The whole ordeal.

Obviously, we live in a world where there are much more efficient ways of communication (says the girl who's writing a blog post...). Email, blogs, text messages, and social networking have streamlined communication in ways that no one a hundred years ago could have anticipated. And don't get me wrong, I am all about internet-centered communication.

But there is something special about letters. Real letters. The ones that come in an envelope with a stamp and magically appear in your mailbox. Your real mailbox, that is.

It's that it is coming from my hands to yours. The paper was held by me, written on by me, carried around by me. There's an element of physical touch, that by definition, cannot be experienced in e-communication.

Every other minute there's some new communication technology at our doorstep. And it is inevitably skinnier, faster, awesomer than the one before it. I, myself, just got a new phone for Christmas. It is pink and has a keyboard and lets me communicate faster and better than my last one.

But I will never be able to give up snail-mail. Old-fashioned, maybe, but totally worth it.