Thoughts from an acheing head

Laying in bed with a raging headache but unable to rest. Took a couple of Excederin and hope they work sooner than soon. Meanwhile I'll blog to take my mind of the ache. Had a bit of a conversation with my brother while he was here about the ways of communicating today. He says that his blogging, face booking, has kept him in touch with his old friends and made him some new ones. I am in touch with friends I made on the Internet and met in person but also with those I had as snail mail pen pals and have never met. While email, twitter, face book, etc. is certainly faster, snail mail is far more personal. The pleasure of finding a letter from a friend or loved one in the mail box is not the same as reading an email. Also it required more commitment because the letter had to be written, put in an envelope, and mailed! There is not much effort put into dashing off an email. Granted the web cams and voice chats which I use quite often can put you in the here and now and I wouldn't want to do away with them. I also recognize the fact that devices such as cell phones and laptops can keep the world connected and show us much more of the world than all the news shows combined. Witness the turmoil in Iran. Twitter and Youtube has been a life line for those protesters in Iran whose freedoms have been so brutally repressed. So yes I see the good in instant communication. I also see the bad side of it when I read about someone who has lied about who they are and caused great harm to those who believe them. It's not perfect, but then again nothing is. I do miss getting personal mail though. The pleasure of finding a letter from a friend or loved one in the mail box is not the same as reading an email. Grabbing a cup of tea or coffee and settling into a comfy chair, opening the envelope that just days ago was sealed shut by a warm tongue, unfolding the sheets of stationary that were folded by loving hands and catching the scent of the person who wrote it can be a very sensual experience or a comforting one depending on who sent it. I miss that. I fear the personal letter has gone the way of the dinosaurs, and that is a shame.