Handwriting in a high-tech world
Last night I wrote two letters, folded them in white envelopes, and decorated them with sealing wax in a nice coffee colour shade. There was a smoky smell in the kitchen when I melted the wax granules. It stuck on my fingers. I washed my hands. But it remained as if my skin had soaked it.
It felt like a jump back in time -who remembers when?- when people had their time to write letters and dedicated half a minute to contemplate them. Half a minute isn’t much time. 30 seconds in which your attention is driven and focused on a very simple thing, after a very simple action. Putting your thoughts into paper.
We usually text messages all day meanwhile at work, doing grocery shopping, or rushing somewhere for accomplish some other tasks. Whatever.
A text message, a thing that doesn’t really exist. Words that appear on a display and disintegrate converted into data to a phone tower, then injected in the network to another device in few seconds, where they will reappear ready to be read by the recipient. Fascinating, thrilling. But untouchable.
Is it because we know those words don’t really exist that we dedicate so little attention on that? So little of ourselves? Handwriting requires time, in a world where we seem to have anything but time. Most of all, it requires your personality between those marks on the page. Because there, Calligraphy enters on the stage. So that when you handwrite a letter to someone, or a postcard -whatever-, you not only gift the person with your words, but also with your time and unique personality. Those things are like art pieces.
Vibrant, unique, intimate. Each mark corresponds to you, in the moment when you wrote at the desk, in the kitchen or on the bus, that moment, writing down and giving a bit of yourself away with your words. It would be a pity if that form of art would disappear, swallowed by our tech-world, where every word is typed and much the same to every other.
So, please, write letters. Write one today, right now. Write it to your parents, or a friend, a neighbour. Write to your children, grandchildren, or cousins. Write to that classmate you haven’t seen since you were a teenager but never stop thinking about. Write a letter to someone you see every day, or to someone you haven’t seen in a while. Write it in your words, with your calligraphy. Write on paper and let the letter be in the world. Take your time to touch it, feel the marks under your fingers.
It exists now, and a bit of you with it.
*Ad The pen I used to write the letters and the first draft of this article is a Hong Dian fountain pen in the Milk Tea contrasting colour.* Click here to buy this beautiful pen.
