What Happened To Our Mail?

What happened to our mail? Hint: it has little to do with email.

It's a good question to ask now that Canada Post has decided to take away home delivery and stick us with a *ahem* hefty increase in the price of stamps.

So what happened?

We got lazy, or maybe we just got busy but the bottom line is we changed.

It used to normal to pick up a pen and write a letter just to stay in touch, but now it has become a lost art.

Before the telephone and before cheap long distance a letter to an old friend or to family that lived miles away a letter was the best, almost the only way to keep in touch. You didn't just send a card at Christmas time, you sent a family update. You'd let your friends know what was happening,  how the kids were, that you had the house redecorated. But we just don't seem to have the time anymore.

Writing a letter is an investment in someone. You pick up your pen, gather your thoughts and share them in a meaningful way. A letter was composed. A mistake or poorly written thought was not just backspaced over and retyped, a mistake was either stricken or the whole page was tossed into the garbage.

Even just jotting a quick note required thought and planning. Putting pen to paper produces something personal and permanent.

But today we just don't seem to be able to find the time. We can't even be bothered to stop at the store to select a proper card.

We used to save correspondence from our friends and loved ones. Now we get texts and emails, you can print emails but it's not the same.

My Grandmother had wonderful penmanship, so did my Mom. I do not, nor do my siblings but my sister's handwriting is far better than mine.

You used to be able to tell what someone was thinking when they wrote, you could see the changes in their writing. You could tell if they were busy and had to write in spurts around their schedule, but no more.  Each typewritten word looks the same as the next.

I see that some school boards are looking to do away with teaching cursive handwriting in favour of keyboarding. It will be a loss.

Maybe I have this all backwards, this isn't a case of a government run enterprise gouging me and reducing their services at the same time, this is punishment for letting my handwriting go to pot and being too lazy to go out and buy a birthday card and a stamp a week before your birthday.

Maybe we don't deserve to have personal delivery of the mail since we don't bother to send mail anyway.

Meh, txting and email R easier ;) LOL

BC