The most basic and simplest pleasures...

I received my first letter from my new pen pal today... and it brought a huge smile to my face. I met him online. He's in the army in the states. I'm not too sure how we came up with the idea of writing to each other. Possibly it was either after an MSN conversation on how disgusting American chocolate is, which led me to suggest posting him some decent UK examples of what it SHOULD taste like (Hershey's tastes like sick!), or perhaps it was after he told me a class of 7 year olds used to write him and send him care packages, but anyway, we agreed to start mailing each other... old fashioned, pen and paper, put it in an envelope and send it type letters.

Patience is certainly not one of my virtues, so when he told me he'd been to the post office last week, I eagerly checked the mail every lunch to see if anything had arrived. Then today, a slim white envelope landed on my desk and my stomach lept into my throat with excitement. In an age where everything is instant, sending and receiving paper mail has probably become near obsolete, and the joy and anticipation of getting a thoughtful and hand written letter forgotten. Modern day correspondance is all online, via email, instant online chat, web cam... and whilst it's convenient and fast, we've lost that personal touch... there's no sentimentality, no keep sake to look back over in years to come. No momentos kept hidden in a box. No time and care is taken to write what you want to say, because if you forget to add something, you just send another message... instantly. In-boxes become full of junk, and words that once meant something become lost, just another email dragged and dropped into the trash can. 

Needless to say, I wanted to start writing the reply straight away, but couldn't as all my nice writing paper is at home. Only problem is, we've chatted so much online that I have to think of something to include in my letter that I've not already said. So I'm going to take my time, and think about how to respond, what I want to say, and what will make him smile back. Because he took the time and effort to write and make me smile first.

I really like this letter writing thing. Funny how a mixture of nostalgia and gratefulness at someone else's time and care can really fill you with joy.