The lost art of letters

I still write letters, I can’t help it, they are thrilling and I wish there were more in the world. There is something magical about sitting down with some beautiful stationary that the recipient will really appreciate, and scrawling over pages and pages in well chosen words that illustrate your thoughts perfectly. Deliberately telling your story in an intimate fashion and then folding your pages and addressing you letter carefully to look innocent and undetermined as it hides your secret words.  None of that really compares too receiving a letter diligently addressed to you in pen and opening it to find a tick volume of paper and curling up with a cup of coffee to devour your friend’s adventures.

Letters are a magnificently fulfilling form of long distance communication that has more potential to reflect and exhibit life that there modern counterparts. Quick and instant texts, emails and phone calls have taken over the thought of a letter because of their ease and freedom to communicate with anyone. Letters however are not about the immediate need for information about who is meeting you where that need nothing more than quick and instant words. No letters are for your fear as your child takes their first steps and not knowing where they will lead, the secrets that must never be over heard and indulgent retelling of your life.

There is a lack of sentiment in ‘I Miss You’ cards and catch up messages that is so easily captured in letters. How can a card picked up on the way to buy toilet cleaner measure up to the detail of attentive and personal words chosen by an individual? How can messages of two or three lines written in a moment meet the thoughtfulness of a letter that has painstakingly pieced together?  How when the world has never been smaller, when we can contact so many people not want to write elegant, wonderful letters filled with life.

There is something meaning full in a written letter that someone has bothered to write to you and conscientiously put effort into carefully scribing part of their life to you. A letter is not an instant automatic response; attention and consideration is put into every aspect of a letter that isn’t present with text messages and phone calls. Letters are an enduring reflection not only of the author but of the friendship presented by the letter that is lost in instant messages, emails and phone calls. Letters are kept and cherished to be re-read when they have yellowed and wrinkled like the hands that hold the fragile paper. In an age of instant communication I am sorry for the lost art of letters, I’m sorry that there will no longer be museums full of lost letters of no bodies discussing events and lives lost in time.

An article

 

Picture Perfect

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and as much as I adore the written word there is something undeniably pleasing about those frozen moments in time. At one glance a photograph can convey complex and wonderful ideas. I have hundreds; I’m not good at taking photos, just catching the atmosphere and those fun-filled moments that only happen once. Photographs evoke personal emotions and refresh faded memories.

A single unmoving image can characterise the feeling of a nation or an individual, it can record the faces and emotions of any number of people. We are able to share photos like never before; in this digital age at every moment there are flashes lighting up the air. We cherish photographs that have hundreds of random strangers in the background. We share in the moment of strangers, the happy ones, the unique and meaningful moments that can never be replicated only remembered.

  I can spend hours being surprised by the soap opera of my family played out through these still images. They are strangely comforting with familiar and smiling faces gazing at you from a moment forever preserved. My favourite photos are often nothing special just a single moment of smiles, dancing and laughter. I would photograph every moment just to keep it safe and with me forever, just so I could smile one day with someone special as I tell them my own story.

Tumbling Pretties here

To blog or not to blog

I apologise for the clichéd title but it appeals to my inner turmoil about myself and blogging. (Please note in no way trying to compete with Hamlets turmoil.) A friend of mine asked if a blog was really a good idea?? Was having another place to have an online presence a good idea??  This coming from a person who has more drunken photos than a years’ worth of Freshers was a little ironic and I thought their fear is a little unjustified.

I really don’t worry about my online presence as much as I should, I have lots of photos but I’m not drunk in many of them and I’m more interested in capturing my friends then their antics or my own for that matter. I seldom put an opinion on Facebook, or make overt statement about things, beliefs or attitudes; these are my thoughts and need a proper forum to be expressed. So I suppose this is it.

Maybe that’s a lie; maybe I just want to be able to talk about myself although whether or not I’ll have something to say is an entirely different matter. Two things my generation seems to excel in is having very little to say and a great capacity to over share, and I’m fairly happy to acknowledge myself as one of them!! I still have mixed feeling about blogging, but I suppose this is a rather lovely reflection of my mixed feeling about my life and its current state.

Blogs are tricky things; I haven’t even figures out if blogging is a good idea yet. I could end up writing something that I really shouldn’t or I could end up getting jaded with my blog. I’d like to think that as an average person my experiences are relevant, I can give a step by step guide in surviving secondary school (private and state), being bullied, being blonde, having a respectable IQ, being a geek, being popular, having opinions, not having opinions, having an amazing time at uni, being true to yourself and striking a balance in understanding other people’s opinions. I can tell you how to maintain relationships with friends, better halves, siblings and parents as long as you under the age of 21 that is. Most importantly I can tell you exactly how difficult being young and existing in our developed and modern world is. I want this blog to engage with my generations struggle to define itself and my journey through this turbulent time of self definition.

What I think I know but have yet to really test is that life is nothing more than a random collection of experiences, it’s the knowledge you gain, the people that are there and how fantastic you make those moments that is important. I told my friend I had no idea if a blog was a good idea but since I had never know them take the time to fully read a Facebook status let alone an article or book, my blog would be forgotten by my friend very soon.