The Love Letter

My mother loves making cards. She makes them for every occasion you can think of, and even a few you've never thought of. She sends them to everyone all the time. She's someone who hasn't forgotten the satisfying feeling of mailing something physical to someone, nor of receiving a physical note in return. So I really shouldn't have been too surprised at the card I received in the mail from her today. Although it still makes me laugh.

The card had hearts on the inside and out. One of the ones on the inside was a fuzzy heart sticker even. The inside of the card read, "Sounds like love is in the air. How exciting. Love, Mom & Dad." I didn't realize walking through a jewelry store with someone was cause for a congratulatory greeting card. Leave it to my mom.

On the whole though, I feel that our society has gotten too far away from the beauty that is a well crafted love letter. My relationship with the boyfriend has been in writing to a very large degree. Both of us are computer geeks and are at a computer for a good portion of our day, so we have email conversations back and forth all the time. It's great because we have this written record of our relationship (which also means I can look up what he said months/years ago and has forgotten). Even when we are sitting right next to each other in a church meeting, we write back and forth to each other, passing notes. At least we aren't talking and disrupting the lesson. We have a notebook I keep in my bag for church for that very reason.

But we also know when it is time to put down the pen or keyboard and actually talk, face to face, about what is really important. Unlike some guys who feel it is okay to apologize via text message (how old is he? 12?).

There is a time for fun banter through technology. And there is a time for eye contact and touch and hearing each other's voices with their words.

And I hope there's still time for a good love letter too.