Tiptoe through the Tulips
A friend sent me some flowers the other day.
It made me cry.
They were to say that she missed me. I miss her too...
It got me thinking about how, in this day and age, with all the technological gadgets at our fingertips, we don't seem to be actually any better at keeping in touch with the people who matter.
When we moved to Australia in 1982, I started writing letters to my cousins, my grandmothers, my aunts. It was a habit I maintained until I was at uni, and so very very busy and self-absorbed. I still kept writing, although to a much lesser extent. I also started writing to my sister who was at uni in Bathurst.
When MrB and I moved to the UK in 1999 I continued to write to friends and family, however I found the homesickness and loneliness to be so great I needed to talk to people, so relied on the phone much more to get that connection. Our One-tel account was our only luxury.
Nowadays I sit at a computer all day, and yet don't utilise it as a tool to keep in touch - I'm happy to madly MSN online friends, but never seem to get around to sending lengthy emails to friends and family overseas. I have a brother who is overseas so often and out of the loop, yet I don't drop him a quick line relating the latest tales of his nieces' adventures.
I don't think it's just me either - I see the emails that pass between my father and his brothers back in the UK. They're often quick one-liners about Nanny or travel plans, nothing like the long letters full of news that we used to get. It's almost like there's an assumption that because the global village has shrunk so much - because we're all just a mouse-click away from each other - we just don't need to put in the effort anymore.
I think we're losing something, I'm losing something... The time spent reflecting and writing a letter has been absorbed into the daily hurdy-gurdy of life. I spend time writing this blog, but it's often done at work, when I don't have to sit and devote myself to the one activity.
Maybe I need to go buy myself a pack of notecards and send my gorgeous friend a thank you card. And I may just relate a couple of twin-related anecdotes, because as their Prayer-Parents I know she'd like to hear it. I'll even go out now, in the rain, to show my new-found dedication to the art of letter-writing.
Be Right Back.
It made me cry.
They were to say that she missed me. I miss her too...
It got me thinking about how, in this day and age, with all the technological gadgets at our fingertips, we don't seem to be actually any better at keeping in touch with the people who matter.
When we moved to Australia in 1982, I started writing letters to my cousins, my grandmothers, my aunts. It was a habit I maintained until I was at uni, and so very very busy and self-absorbed. I still kept writing, although to a much lesser extent. I also started writing to my sister who was at uni in Bathurst.
When MrB and I moved to the UK in 1999 I continued to write to friends and family, however I found the homesickness and loneliness to be so great I needed to talk to people, so relied on the phone much more to get that connection. Our One-tel account was our only luxury.
Nowadays I sit at a computer all day, and yet don't utilise it as a tool to keep in touch - I'm happy to madly MSN online friends, but never seem to get around to sending lengthy emails to friends and family overseas. I have a brother who is overseas so often and out of the loop, yet I don't drop him a quick line relating the latest tales of his nieces' adventures.
I don't think it's just me either - I see the emails that pass between my father and his brothers back in the UK. They're often quick one-liners about Nanny or travel plans, nothing like the long letters full of news that we used to get. It's almost like there's an assumption that because the global village has shrunk so much - because we're all just a mouse-click away from each other - we just don't need to put in the effort anymore.
I think we're losing something, I'm losing something... The time spent reflecting and writing a letter has been absorbed into the daily hurdy-gurdy of life. I spend time writing this blog, but it's often done at work, when I don't have to sit and devote myself to the one activity.
Maybe I need to go buy myself a pack of notecards and send my gorgeous friend a thank you card. And I may just relate a couple of twin-related anecdotes, because as their Prayer-Parents I know she'd like to hear it. I'll even go out now, in the rain, to show my new-found dedication to the art of letter-writing.
Be Right Back.
Labels: friends, Navel-gazing
posted by actonb at 3:00 pm
3 Comments:
dearest, everything is getting shittier. nothing is simple anymore. you cant even buy washing powder anymore - now you have to have some kind of anti-bacterial-whizz-bang-enzyme-crushing-super-soaker-with -added-bubbles kind of powder.
letters arent being written. even emails arent being written. people are slipping through our fingers like never before.
thankfully there are a few people that still entertain the notion that its still always preferable to receive something in your Mail box rather than your In box.
It's not purely reactionary on my part then? Good!
I just don't know where all the time goes - you know, all this time we're supposed to be saving now...?
This struck a chord with me actonb.
I love getting mail but am seriously crap at sending it - funny that as it is a 2 way street. Will have to take your example and run with it.
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