Jonna Carter: You’ve Got Mail

I had a lovely surprise earlier this week when I retrieved from my mailbox an actual letter. Remember those? This was a note thanking Scott and me for our hospitality, and it took me back to a time when such notes were, rather than a rarity, a common courtesy. This was a time before we’d sold our souls to technology.

My brother and I were raised by parents who instilled in us the importance of a written acknowledgement for gifts or kindnesses extended to us from beyond our nuclear family. In those days the only thing that cast a pall over Christmas and birthdays were the obligatory thank you notes. While other kids in the neighborhood were outside organizing all manner of games and contests, we were sequestered with our stationery until such time that the very last note had been addressed and stamped. Only then, unencumbered, were we allowed to run outdoors and join our friends at play.