#letters
#family #letters
TRANSCRIBING OLD FAMILY LETTERS
In America during the Great Depression years, my relatives in the Southern states used every inch of a piece of paper to write letters to each other. They ran out of ink, and used pencils. The ink faded and so did the pencil written letters. I transcribe those letters before they all fall to pieces and fade away. Some of the letters have required a jewelers magnifying glass to read the words.
Life improved after the Depression.
Regent
Mostly dreams, rem the dreamt dream, the watch were halcyon; umbrage time in a aesthetic mind, learnt all that was taut, each recap roomed; as the invincible, shadowed the aesthetic time. Mileage chonographs in time, the distance you make between you and i. Memorabilia were substituted to the cove, locks, cutters, cargo to the dance you shared his heart. Navigation i was reading the day you introduced dichotomy, presentation by participating an illusion: You are here and i ask of you my recourse; had i learnt it wrongly, did those colours not define you, were you pleasant or kindly too me. The state of being is your name, Lapis Lazuli was the novel i had read to define privilege, sped read it twice and couldn’t find you. Aesthetics have caressed in time and dream, linked my dreams to the time you were at lost to those letters.
Return to sender: writers mourn loss of physical letters as Australia Post contemplates decline
The Guardian
The postal service predicts letters will become ‘peripheral’ as mass communication further shifts to digital – to the regret of some.
Before email put them at risk and smartphones became an existential threat, handwritten letters played a vital role in everyday life. They could be used to declare love to a partner, or convey news of a tragedy. They united penpals from around the world. Sometimes, grandma slipped money into them. (...)
(Text continues underneath the photo.)
‘Letter writing is an expression that is necessary for wellbeing’ says Melanie Knight, an arts therapist and avid letter writer from Melbourne. Photograph: Ingo Oeland/Alamy.
The postal service expects the “unstoppable decline” will gather pace, making letters a peripheral form of communication by 2030.
Knight, an expressive arts therapist who runs creative letter-writing workshops, says society will be poorer for its demise.
“Even though there’s thousands of emojis, [digital communication] is so homogeneous,” Knight says. (...)
Peter Slattery, a research fellow at Monash University, says he sees a future role for physical letters even if more generic correspondence goes digital.
“Both in the business world and the personal world, letters will be associated with high-value, selected communication and more of the mass communication will switch to digital,” says Slattery, who writes on behavioural science.
“People value getting a letter a lot more; they know it takes more effort and feels more tangible.” (...)
Some fear the transient nature of digital communication means future generations will miss out on having documented insight into the minds of notable figures, such as the thoughts contained in archived love letters from Johnny Cash to June Carter, Napoleon to Josephine and Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton.
“Letters are so precious, they can give a really personal lens into a period of time through lived experience,” says Knight.
“I hope we don’t lose that. What it’s like to walk down the driveway and open the mailbox and find a personal letter there – it’s just thrilling.”
Tags: #letters #letter_box #post #mail #mail_man #e-mail #digital_communication #emoji #post #correspondence #love_letter
December 1st - A Day to Write To Prisoners!
December 1st is Prisoners for Peace Day. On this day (and every day) we encourage you to show #solidarity with the #activists and #ConscientiousObjectors imprisoned due to their #peace work and their refusal to take #arms and perform #military service.
This year we want to highlight and denounce how countries like #Singapore, the Republic of #Korea, #Eritrea and #Tajikistan continues to prosecute and imprison conscientious objectors.
Find a list of #prisoners for peace here, download the list here or below.
As we get closer to this day, what can you do?
We have been told repeatedly by people who have been sent messages of solidarity while in #prison, either via #letters or solidarity actions, that the moral support of like-minded people has been invaluable. Your solidarity is crucial to remind the #imprisoned refusers and peace activists that they are not alone and that we are aware of the significance of their #resistance. On this day,
- Join many others from across the world and write to those imprisoned for their peace work and conscientious objection.
- Encourage your friends, peace group, student, faith or community group to organise a card-writing session (online, or if the Covid-19 regulations allow, physical).
- Help us spread the word on social media. Use the hashtag #PfPday21 and post your messages of solidarity with prisoners for peace on social media, and invite others to write to those in #jail.
If you have details of other prisoners for peace not yet listed, please write to info@wri-irg.org.
