Letter Writing: A Lost Art

   I laughed over this picture the first time I saw it, but the more I look at it, the more I see how truthful it is; which, I suppose, is what makes it so funny. I remember when I got my first email account- I was 16. My cousin and I thought it was the coolest thing and would sit in front of the computer all day talking via email. Now I have 3 email accounts; one for work, one was for school, and one for junk mail, and she and I text when we have time to talk.

   It seems that life has lost something with the invention of all these technological communication devices- Text, Facebook, Tweet, Tumbler, Skype and more. Our lives revolve around our computers and I wonder if we have become less because of it.
 People may label me romantic or old-fashioned, and I surely don't mind that, but I think there is something to be said for letter writing. It improves one's ability to think clearly and concisely, and also strengthens relationships between the sender and the receiver. I love finding letters in my mailbox; there's something about it that connects me to it's sender more deeply than a text message would.

   

What's so appealing about a hand written letter?

 
   There are people out there who don't like the idea of letters- it's a waste of time, paper, trees, and whatnot- but most people that I have dealt with say that they love receiving letters in the mail, even if they are horrible letter writers themselves. Why do we want that? With all the instant communication that we get from technology, why do we still want a piece of scrap paper in our mailbox?   

Loss of Bookstores

"I guess what I fear is not the death of stories, but rather the end of the physical space which those stories take up. Walking through the stacks and shelves of bookstores- all our past and present knowledge looms, cast shadows on you. Maybe you get more accurate a sense of the distance we've come as a thinking race. It's like a real, living, interactive timeline."

Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers

Puritan prayers are some of the most beautiful things that I have ever read. My first taste of this collection was while sitting in church. An elder was doing the welcome, upcoming events, and other such things that are said before the pastor preaches, and then instead of praying from his heart, he informed us that the prayer he would be saying was The Valley of Vision.

The first thing that caught my ear was the use of language- I love the older fashioned tone of this book- but as I continued to listen to this prayer the elder was reading, the pouring out of the writer's heart was so evident. His longing to be in God's will, to glorify Him in everything, his acknowledgement of sinful nature, God's holiness, and the sweet gift of salvation was scattered throughout the prayer.

Here's a taste of the prayers written in this book. This is an excerpt of one of my favorite prayers, and is now taped to the side of my bed that I may wake up every morning to the sight of it.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A silent and very French film of how books bring color to people's lives.

Laddle Rat Rotten Hut

The first time I heard of this was from my Grandfather- he was always one for riddles, thoughtful pranks, and a good yarn. This is, at first glance, a jumble of nonsensical words; but when read aloud and listened to, it truly comes to life!

Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge dock florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry ladle cluck wetter putty ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

Wan moaning, Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset, "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker."

"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle basking an stuttered oft. Honor wrote tutor cordage offer groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof. "Wail, wail, wail!" set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?" cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groin-murder hoe lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper laundry wrote! An yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet strainers!"

Tim Challies: Empty Minds. Empty Hearts. Empty Lives.

Borrowed from Tim Challies Website

Do you remember when you used to have a memory? Do you remember when you could actually remember stuff and when you actually needed to remember stuff? You know, stuff like phone numbers or recipes or Bible verses. Those days seem to be nearing an end. An interesting new study from psychology professors at Columbia University, the University Of Wisconsin-Madison, and Harvard University comes to this rather startling conclusion: “We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools.” It’s not just that we are no longer remembering things, but we are entrusting to our tools the things we used to entrust to ourselves. In this way we are becoming symbiotic with our tools, with our machines, forming an interdependent kind of relationship.

It is the ease with which we access information through the Internet that has gotten us here. The days of solving our questions by going to the library, searching the index system and looking for the book in the midst of all the shelves are long since gone. The days of walking over the bookcase and pulling out the relevant volume of the encyclopedia are gone as well. Instead, we now head straight to our computers or cell phones or iPads—whatever it is that we use to connect to the Internet.

The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can “Google” the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue. The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

What the Future Looks Like