The undying appeal of the love letter
March 26, 2004 | 12:00am
When I was younger I had visions of my grandchildren visiting my geriatric home and playing in the attic only to stumble upon a long forgotten cedar chest filled with sweet smelling lace, beautiful dresses and ribbons of years past, and finally unearthing a stack of brittle but still lovely envelopes bound together by a satin cornflower blue ribbon and filled with honey-dipped love letters from my past.
A sweet little fantasy of my youth no doubt the reality of which will probably be a couple of shoeboxes filled with letters from my childhood best friend, Lena, on stationery emblazoned with ubiquitous cartoon characters and well-meaning retreat letters from Assumption High School and Days with the Lord.
It’s not that the men that have graced my life never wrote to me, it’s just that the letters I’ve received are not entirely of the satin cornflower blue ribbon variety. Case in point: My college boyfriend used to send me notes on the back of his homework (Hurray for recycling but boohoo for romance). Not to mention as the technological era continues to propel itself forward whatever love letters I may receive in the future may be love e-mails or texts instead (I shudder with REAL dread at the thought of that). And that’s if I’m lucky!
Many people have lauded the 20th century as being the most easy-to-communicate era but I can’t help but sometimes feel that with all the high-tech ways of staying in touch or communicating what were actually doing is putting an end to real contact as we know it. Gone are the days of actual face-to-face interaction, gone are the days of long telephone conversations listening the voices of our loved ones, now we have text conversations with lingo like "wru" or "c u l8r"... hmmm, the era of true communication? I don’t think so.
As human interaction dwindles away to next to nothing and we all become more and more dependent on our mobiles and e-mail servers I can’t help but hang on to the last bastion of personable interaction – the written word. No matter how sweet a text message or how gushingly loving an email, nothing beats the elan of the written word.
And I don’t think it’s just the special and delicate uniqueness of handwriting that makes written letters throw hearts a flutter. It’s the thought and genuine sincerity that goes into preparing a written correspondence. Albeit e-mails and text messages can be thought out as well, nothing compares to finding the right card or stationary along with the proper ink and then penmanship comes into play and not making a mistake when writing the letter. Above all of that is the actual wording.
Like one of my favorite scenes in the movie A Knight’s Tale. Other than the rather experimental use of rock music versus the music of the era used in the film which I still can’t decide as good or bad, I loved the wonderful wording in the movie, especially the dialogue of Geoffrey Chaucer (played by Paul Bettany). One of the key scenes in the film was when the group, in an attempt to reconcile Sir Ulrich with his loved one, put all their past emotional experiences together in a sweet and heartfelt letter that conveyed all of his emotions. Needless to say, the lady was swept off her feet.
Another movie that emphasized the appeal of the love letter was the well-loved Cyrano de Bergerac or its more famous contemporary Roxanne starring Steve Martin. It was about how a man blessed with a rather unique physical appearance was still able to win the heart of the woman he loved by sending her letters filled with beautiful poetry and personal sentiment that she could not resist.
In the days of old men and women would stay awake by the light of a single burning candle and scribble away at parchment with a feather quill and a bottle of ink scratching away in the night their sentiments of love and devotion. After carefully wording the correspondences the parchment would be folded or rolled and the wax seal of the sender would be used to seal the letter. Writers in those days would be characterized not by their word processors but by the ink blots that would perpetually stain their fingers. I have to admit I love the way people kept in touch back then. Nothing spells elegance more than a personal wax seal, not to mention ink blot accessories!
Perhaps I truly was born in the wrong era. Letters these days are practically non-existent but I do admit that not all hope is lost. Being equal opportunistic I don’t think letter writing or card giving should be limited to men alone. Women should feel no shame in pulling out a piece of sweet scented stationery and scribbling her loved one a note or card. I’ve done such on several occasions before and I don’t know if it’s simply the writer genes in me that compel me to keep these correspondences personal. I rely on e-mail as well as the next guy but I don’t let technology be the end all and be all of my contact with the loved ones.
So while I’m grateful to the World Wide Web for keeping me in touch at the speed of lightning with my friends and family across the seas I still push for personal written correspondences. I’m keeping my cedar chest free for the future possibility of heartfelt love letters that smell of lilac that my children’s children can one day find.
Since this is unfortunately also the era of stalkers I shall forego giving my address away and content myself with e-mail letters.
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