Last week, I introduced my daughters to the old school concept of pen pals. In enthusiastic mommy voice, my explanation went something like this, “When I was your age, I had what’s called a pen pal! We wrote letters back and forth to each other, and even though we never met, we became friends. We would write about what we liked and didn’t like, and we’d ask questions about each other, and sometimes, we would even send each other stickers! Plus, wouldn’t it be great to get a letter in the mail that’s just for you?” As my seven year old stared blankly at me after my pen pal description, I was left thinking that I may have overhyped it.
That is, until the pensive look on my older daughter’s face
turned into a smile. Because my younger daughter has a cousin in New Jersey
that is only four days apart in age (shout out to LiAnna), I was actually
trying to gear the conversation towards her.
But with her older sister on board, I figured her acceptance of the idea
would follow. And then I remembered that my girls are complete opposites. So,
what one finds interesting, the other naturally detests. Fallon, my oldest,
wound up writing a letter to a friend who moved away last year. As for LiAnna
in New Jersey, I’m still working on it. At
the end of the day, a letter was written and put in the mailbox. Mission
accomplished…sort of.
I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the effort
it took me to get the girls interested in the pen pal idea. Based on my short
description, you might think this took only minutes. However, this whole
process, from explanation to finished letter in the mailbox, took a few
hours. You might be wondering if my
girls have IPhones or Facebook accounts or any other technology that enables
them to communicate immediately with someone. Though they have Skyped a few
times from my laptop, the answer is no. My kids are currently phone and text-free
kids. So it’s not like they were frowning upon the antiquated snail mail
concept. They just simply weren’t as interested as I thought they would be.
So, that’s when I started wondering about letter writing in
general. Technology has completely squashed the need for it. As I sit here with
my laptop, writing this blog that has the potential of reaching a significant
amount of people all over the world, I don’t want it to seem like I don’t appreciate
our culture of instantaneous communication. But I also can’t help but think how
nice it would be to get a letter in the mail that isn’t a bill or a random catalog
from Omaha Steaks. Not to mention, the pleasure of writing back has always been
special to me. But in our technology driven world, has the art of putting pen
to paper been lost? Does letter writing have a place anymore? If we can’t
quickly “like” a “status”, would a letter in the mail from a friend get lost in
the abyss of our daily shuffle?
Obviously, my daughters’ lives at seven and ten years old are
not too busy. Even so, I’m not sure if the pen pal idea will stick or if they
will see the value in it. At the very least, I am happy to have familiarized
them with letter writing. Even if they only write and receive one letter, I
hope they find those few moments of pure joy when opening the mailbox and finding
a letter from a friend.
*This piece was published on Scary Mommy on August 25, 2015.
