Of "real" photos & letters

"Real photos"
Originally uploaded by jyew.

I signed up for Shutterfly last week for no other reason than the fact that they enticed me with 15 free photos prints. I chose some pictures of when my family was here in the Fall, some of Christmas at home last year, and these to remember our friends here in A2. There are some from the SI graduation, the post-graduation parties, and the smashing SIGN picnic in 2004.

Is it silly that I actually got really excited at the prospect of getting these "real" photos in the mail? Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate digital technology, the ability to photoshop, and of course Flickr in all its social-networking glory, but at the end of the day, there's just something kind of elemental about holding the real thing in your hand. And then being able to put them in frames or an album or scrapbook.

It's like email- I don't think I could live without it now, and I love the fact that it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family from afar. But honestly, nothing makes me happier than receiving a handwritten card or letter in the mailbox. The comforting feel of something tangible in your hand, the thought and effort it took the person to put something down on paper, no matter how good or bad the penmanship. I stand guilty of course for not making an effort to write as many letters and postcards as I would like to (although I try to hand-write as many of my Christmas cards as I can every year...), and I sometimes wish I could sacrifice the time and convenience of email to sit down and pen a proper letter. Unlike an email that you can type, correct and rewrite what you don't like, there's an art to letter-writing that I think is fast disappearing. It takes a level of patience and committment to apply yourself to composing a good letter that's somehow absent in emails. Or maybe that's just me...

"Oh, my Dear Friend, my heart was trembling as I walked into the post office, and there you were, lying in Box 237. I took you out of your envelope and read you, read you right there."
- Klara (Margaret Sullavan) in her letter to Alfred (Jimmy Stewart) in The Shop Around the Corner, the film on which You've Got Mail is based.