You can write things you could never say - or say with the force and beauty you can by writing them. By hand.
To write, you have to think longer, you have to choose the right word to say (to write) what you really mean. You need a little more time to fashion your message.
But, mostly you know, you don’t have the time or the need to write. Most of the stuff you have to communicate isn’t of choice. It’s of necessity. It’s for business, school, the dinner, Uber, appointments, the kids. It’s done by phone or internet.
In our day-to-day lives, most communications aren’t pen-to-paper. They’re cell phone, memo, text, social media, exigent life “talk.” It’s not “writing.”
Then, there’s the other thing. It’s when you want to - you feel you have to - have something to say. You know, when a friend who’s far away has a difficult stretch like a bereavement, a job loss, a separation or any such life crisis, you realize you have to come up with something, something to offer them, you’re offered an emoji. You have convenient smiles, frowns, tears, hilarity, irony, passion - ready to attach! I like to think that’s not enough for most of us. You need to write.
You need to write however clumsily, however short of your deepest feelings, however lacking in the depth of emotion you want to communicate and want to be capable of communicating. You must try.
When your message arrives, however it arrives (first-class mail is good), it will be a personal visit. It will be a piece of you. The envelope will contain your breath. It will speak as you do, care as you do and say, perhaps imperfectly but with perfect intention, what you are feeling.
The written word brings you as close as you can get to an absent other. That’s why there are collections of love letters. There are no collections of love emails. A written message tells that you cared to take the time to find the right words to assure the other that you are with them in their adversity or in their joy. And they will believe it because they’ll be holding it in their hands.
Jim O’Rourke
Newfoundland