it would be great if…

All right, I’ve benefitted as much from the speed and convenience of email communication as anyone. But I really do miss the days of writing, printing, and sending paper letters, much less the great joy of receiving them.

I knew we had crossed a watershed when Alphonso Lingis started sending only emails, which happened within the past 2 or 3 years. He was the final remaining champion of paper correspondence in my circles, and a real artist in the genre. It’s now difficult to remember the last bona fide letter I received, not counting postcards or Christmas cards. I did send one to my grandmother in August, but that may have been my first in two years.