Everyday Canvas

Letters

Prompt: A letter is practically a gift.
Write about this in your Blog entry today.

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Surely, a letter could end up becoming the best gift. When preserved well, it has the ability to transcend time as it is a time capsule in itself, preserving sentiments and events, after it may be tucked away in a drawer or kept between the pages of a book, and then found again years or decades away in the future.

The value of a letter lies in its simplicity, sincerity, and the strength of emotions it conveys, be it nostalgia, laughter, tears, or joy. It is a gesture that goes beyond the material, resonating with the recipient on a deeply personal level.

During the First and Second World Wars, letter writing was the main form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones, which helped to ease their pain of separation. Opening an envelope to reveal the letter had to be like unwrapping a treasure in a moment of anticipation and excitement.

Many touching personal stories are vividly brought to life through the exchange of letters, letters between lovers, friends, siblings, sons, and daughters. In our day, many of those letters written during the wars are still alive in the archives and museums. Such letters can also be valued as significant historical documents, especially if they describe events that later become famous.

Some romantics like my grandmother preserved those old letters in a pile wrapped with a bright red ribbon. Then, when I held them in my hand years later, I felt a deep respect and admiration for my grandfather whom I had never met in person.

Letters are valuable gifts that are poignant and authentic. Even if, in our time, communication has taken many other forms, those old letters serve as a reminder of the power of words that link people. Those of us in our time feel lucky when we hold such a letter in our hands and wonder how it has survived in an old trunk or a drawer to celebrate the beauty of human connection.

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In Addition:
Here is an article that shows the contents of a book written in 1876, titled How To Write Letters by J. Willis Westlake, an English Literature professor in Pennsylvania.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/12/21/how-to-write-letters-1876/


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