Regular mail: A new (old) way of communicating

Sending hand-written letters by regular mail used to be a thing.

I recently had the joy of meeting up with an old friend/classmate (several of them, actually) whom I hadn’t seen for over 40 years. Back then, we used to write letters to each other fairly regularly, until life, relationships, and whatever else got in the way put an end to that.

Or a temporary end, anyway, as it turns out. This particular friend and I agreed to stay in touch again, but use regular mail to do it. Does 40 years count as a break or a fresh start? Should I answer the last letter she wrote in 1985 or talk about more current topics?

In any event, I sent off the first written letter via regular mail the other day, and it was interesting how I couldn’t get my mind wrapped around the non-immediacy of it, relative to sending an e-mail. I found myself wondering, “I wonder if she’s received it yet,” while it was still sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be mailed!

This process will force a shift in thinking that may well be a counterbalance to our (or at least my) often unrealistic and perhaps unhealthy expectations of digital communications in 2025.

Maybe regular mail will get me to slow things down in some other areas of my life, too.