Opinion | You Should Start Writing Letters
Channel: Phim Hay TV
Date: 12/07/2020

Read full article here: https://readnews.io/572861



Its been deeply comforting to think that whatever I am writing will soon be in the hands of someone else, especially in a time of so much physical distancing.  Ive sent letters as far as Argentina and South Korea, and as near as only a few blocks from my door.  Some of the handwriting Ive seen, like mine, has been laughably illegible; other letters are aesthetically works of art.  One friend, an international student isolating on an otherwise-emptied college campus in New Jersey, enclosed a petal from a blossoming cherry tree.  In these pages, I read the smiles I cannot see. Im not alone in finding comfort in letter-writing these days.  A recent New York Times article reported on the rise in snail mail and handwritten messages; the practice seems to have caught on as people cope with grief from the pandemic.  That Ive only started writing letters now is ironic and sad, too, because the U. S.  Postal Service is bleeding.  The economic devastation of the pandemic could be the final blow that ends one of our nations oldest and most cherished institutions.  While an increase in package volume during the first few months of the pandemic is providing temporary relief, no amount of letters we send can make up for the billions in federal funding that are needed to save it. And yet, as with so many other things these days, Im holding out hope.  A Postal Service survey published in May suggested younger people in particular were more likely to want to send cards and letters during this time.  Though that doesnt mean a lot of us are actually doing it, part of me likes to think theres some Florentino Ariza out there, writing impassioned letters to the girl hes not permitted to see. More likely, its because were missing our friends and classmates; were so badly aching for the simple physical connections that the coronavirus has taken away without a promise of near return.  Perhaps its because a letter is an unhindered way of working