Cleaning out the boxes from the past in the cubbyhole under the eaves, has been a months long task. This last box was full of old correspondence, much of it from the 1990s. Imagine! People wrote letters just 30 some years ago. You know! They took pen and paper and in longhand and cursive shared their thoughts and experiences with the person to whom they were writing. Now and then there was a letter that was typed, on a typewriter. Remember those?

It’s been interesting reviewing some of the letters and cards. Some people I’d lost track of. Now I’ve reconnected with them through Facebook or Linkedin. Others, I’ve discovered are deceased; several of them dying much too young.

The quantity of paper in that box, now resulting in a full bag for the waste bin, is astonishing. The paper industry must have taken a terrible hit with the advent of the computer and the internet.

And what about the post office? Who sends letters anymore? The only thing the mailman delivers to our house is ads, bills and solicitations. Some days there are six or eight different requests for money. Many of them are from non-profits where I made a donation six months or a year ago, and I’ve already gotten so many additional requests from them they’ve spent my original donation on postage. I also get regular membership cards, before I agree to become a member and pay the membership fee. How does that work?

And the bills? Most bills could be paid online. All I’d have to do is set up a regular payment method with a credit card. Almost all of my creditors encourage me to do this. It saves them time and postage. But old school as I am, I like to see the bill, write out the check, and give the post office some additional activity.

Apparently, the post office needs more action. In Brookings, five days a week, the mailman also brings our local paper. What ever happened to the paper boy? That was the way I made a little spending money when I was a kid; delivering papers. It was a good job, except for the fact I also had to collect from my customers. Some of them were never home when I rang the doorbell.

In our house we still send birthday cards in the mail. My sister sends ecards. We may change and start using the internet. We just sent a birthday card to our son in Connecticut. It took 18 days to get to him. We sent a second one on day 14 and both arrived at the same time. Go figure! Maybe the postal gods were simply evening things out as he is notorious for sending late birthday greetings.

I have one friend in California who still writes letters. She sent a letter not long ago. She always makes her own envelope, usually from a magazine picture. Inside the picture is a hand written letter. The combination is artistic and one of a kind.

Some of the letters in the box from the cubby were from friends in India. They were written on air mail sheets so thin and weightless a bird could fly it to the U.S. Usually, these missives would take weeks to make the journey. Now, the connection can be almost immediate and face to face.

All of which brings me to the question of; what have we gained in communication and what have we lost? We have certainly gained speed. Hopefully, we have not lost intimacy. Good communication involves an investment of self; feelings, thoughts, concerns. It’s a recognition we have two ears and one mouth; so we listen twice as much as we speak. It embraces the thoughts of Ephesians 29: “No bad language must pass your lips, but only what is good and helpful to the occasion, so that it is a blessing to those who hear it.”

I don’t write letters that go in envelopes and get mailed. Maybe once a year I’ll write a Christmas letter that goes by way of the post office, but it won’t be hand written as my writing has degraded. For the most part, I write on the computer and send it by way of the internet, like most everyone else. What’s important is what gets communicated.