Making a Mark

What is it that makes people set aside technology and the many ways available to send messages and write a handwritten letter? What is it that makes a handwritten letter so thrilling to receive? I write things by hand often, and it struck me the other day as I wrote the date across the top of my page why it feels so important to do it. It is tangible proof that I was alive, December 21, 2013. More than being just alive, I was conscious, and exerting effort to live my life. It is the desire to make a mark on the world, to leave traces so that people will remember that I existed once, even when I am long gone. It it the same thing that drove the early people to carve stone figures, to paint the walls of caves. Yes there was a purpose, but I am sure that they also thought about how their children's children would see and use the things they had made and maybe remember them. What other pieces of my existence am I leaving for people to find? I wonder.

I think that with this in mind, receiving something handmade or handwritten, like a letter, is meaningful not only because someone took the time to physically and sincerely craft it for you, however simple it is, but also that someone has also entrusted you with its keeping. This mark that they are leaving of their existence is in your hands.