The Lost Art Of Letters
By David Yancy Kang
Click here to read this letter in the original form.
Dear Reader of ProLong Magazine:
In this day and age, with our computers, emails, text messaging, instant messenger, Twitter, facebook, or whatever the Hell have you, we collectively sometimes forget to take a step back and slow things down a bit.
Answer me this: when you go to check your mail, how often do you receive a letter? I mean an honest to goodness letter – handwritten, sealed, and from the heart?
To me, writing a letter by hand is one of the most intimate and personal things you can do. It’s a testament to the time and the thought of a bygone era where people chose their words carefully as who knows when the other party might actually read them? Above all, it’s one of the classiest and most elegant means of communications there is.
One might argue in favor of the fact that email is so much faster. Or that if you write a letter, you should type it. Personally, I believe that shouldn’t matter in the slightest. If you have anything that important or time sensitive – go ahead and write that email. But, if you really want to make a real impression, get yourself a nice piece of stationery, preferably with a watermark, a nice, heavy pen (I personally prefer a fountain pen), a nice writing surface, and just get to writing. You’ll find that it will come a lot easier than you think.
Above all, I believe the ability to actually pen a letter is something any true gentleman should be able to do. It really does hearken back to a simpler time when things were just a little bit different.
So, so what if it’s somewhat anachronistic? It’s a lost art, something that is completely and utterly dying out when by all means it shouldn’t. The art of writing is something that has driven human progression and if we forget our ability to do it, all we have left is tapping on plastic keys. I implore you, reader, pick up a pen and think of someone – your wife, your girlfriend, your buddy, whomever … and write them a letter. I guarantee you it’ll make their day.
All the best,
David Y. Kang
David Yancy Kang is 29 and not in the best shape of his life. This could be attributed to a lack of Bowflex, perhaps not. He works in IT; which likely has more to do with the previous statement than anything else. In his free time, he enjoys brewing beer, drinking said beer, and will occasionally actually finish a book but is predominantly a video game junkie. Other hobbies include running up small nation’s defense budgets in bar tabs, neat Macallan, cigars he can’t afford, having a laugh, cooking, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse. He currently resides in the Philadelphia area with his wife who is amazingly supportive of all his dumb ideas; as well as his two cats Roxy and Hiroshi and zero children.
