Penpalling

I finally finished my letter to my Belgian penpal. ^_^ That had taken me quite a while as it often happens with the letters of my most beloved penpals: you just go on and on and on and you can't shut your pen down! Okay, with my friend Trish is quite worse, truth to be told, as we have proven to each other that noe only our pens are unable to shut up after some "regular amount of pages", but even in person we go on talking and talking, and talking with no end! Her English is remarkable, by the way, and there's not a hit of foreign accent in it, as much as I can tell. If she were to tell you that she's Tara Livingston from Ohio or Katty Morrigan from Sussex you wouldn't even think about doubting her! And her boyfriend also speaks without an accent.

But today isn't about my dear friend Trish or my new friend Phill, but about making a small note about penpalling, and how I've decided to dedicate this day to this wonderful activity. :-) I've a couple of letters piled up for me to answer, and so, since I'm feeling particularly paper-chatty, I'll grab my freshly printed out stationary (love this planetary symbol banner!) and go on to follow a long and delightful conversation with a friend of mine.

Some people don't get it, or don't want to get it, but there's magic in writing a letter by hand, on paper, and posting it on the Post Office. Yes, it takes longer to get to your friend than an e-mail, it's "far more expensive" than an e-mail, takes you longer to compose it, your hand hurts after a while and "don't you get tired or bored of writing by hand?". What weird questions are those, but are fair and are understandable. There's no easy way to explain this, and the only way I can think of explaining it right now, is as thinking of it as magic. A letter is a handmade magical thing you give to someone you love a lot. It takes time and effort, like any good spell you have heard of in the old stories of childhood. Magician and Hero, you wander the paper land with you magic pen-staff or pen-wand and collect the ingredients that unleash the most awesome story of the universe.

With the work of your hand crawled around your magic pen, you make the magic happen, trap it on paper, fold it into an envelop and set it free to find it's destination. It's all magic, with quests and secrets, stories that make you laugh and others that relieve somber thoughts. It is the most fabulous type of magic, free and open for any design, any impromptu drawing, pasting of pictures, collaging, music... even sharing a cup of tea (or a bag) and some breakfast bars. It's open for creative contests, swaps, sharing books, or sending pages void of any decoration, but packed to the brim with tight writing detailing to wonderful precision the life in a part of the world you've never been before, but which you know like your own neighbourhood.

So, e-mails? Yes, they have their space in the life of everyone, but for a penpaller, nothing can compare to the witchery of a handwritten letter.