the one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters

{ besides being put to my most favorite OpShop ever,
this ad reduces me to tears. everytime. }

This past semester I stopped in at my university's international center to check on an address of a friend studying abroad. The girl behind the desk gave me a good, long look at my request. "You're sending mail?" she asked, as if there was any other interpretation of my question. She turned to her boss. "Can people do that?"

The greying, wrinkled old man took me in from head to toe. "Snail mail?!" he exclaimed, raising an eyebrow behind his bi-focals. "The question would be do people do that?"

I persevered, and that's the win. I mean, I'm a big fan of email--it's kept me close to Africa, Brazil, Atlanta---and this post isn't to complain. But there's a major difference in the signed, sealed, delivered, and I refuse to lose it entirely. Handwriting has soul, envelopes have journey, and upside-down stamps keep a thrill to them that can't compare. The post scripts and parentheses! The all-telling sign off and the treasured opening line! The secrets you let slip in the security of a stamp and sufficient distance. The letters I receive are among the treasures I'd save in a house fire, kept close and safe on my nearest bookshelf.

A week from today, stamp prices go up. Again. But I'm going to say that's okay. Because a real live letter? As my mum would say, it's the only true.