57° Fort Worth
All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Show care in correspondence; write, send personal letters

Hey Friend, I am writing this letter to you to tell you that I fear we are losing touch.

It is rare these days to give and/or receive a hand-written letters, such as this one, partially due to the current wave of technology and our nation’s recent laissez-faire attitude the public has adopted toward most forms of interpersonal communication.

Nowadays, it is just easier to send a quick e-mail or instant message rather than taking the time and energy to either handwrite a letter or pick up a phone. But an e-mail can’t match the care and effort it takes to share a letter.

With a letter someone can’t just “carbon copy” the same message to another person. So, each letter tells a whole new story and could have a whole new meaning for each person.

I am not saying to boycott e-mail. It is very useful when getting something resolved within a short period of time. But, for those sending a note to someone telling them how great their spring break or summer vacation was, why shouldn’t they send a letter or even a postcard from where they visited? Those who don’t like the postcards from the hotel gift shop could even make their own with a picture they took at the beach or a cool landmark.

It’s not even common place to pass notes in class anymore. I know we are in class to become educated, but, if a fellow student has a witty retort to add to the lecture, I want to hear it. I was in class Tuesday night when I received a text message from a girl maybe eight feet from me. I looked down at my phone then took a gander to my left with a puzzled look on my face. In a situation like this, it is easier and, for slow typists like myself, faster to just write the three-word message on a piece of scratch paper and hand it to the recipient.

Notes in class are nice, but it is hard to beat getting a letter in the mail. The feeling gets even better when it’s not from your mother, but instead from a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time.

It is sad that I look forward to my birthday every year just so I can receive a card. In fact, I am pretty sure that if my grandparents could figure out a way to attach a $50 check to a happy birthday e-card with a little baseball player on it, I would never see another card in the mail.

E-cards are things that tend to get on my nerves a little bit. It is basically a way of saying that you don’t care enough about someone to pick up a $2 card at any gas station and add your own personal message, but instead you care enough about someone to sort through free cards online and type in his e-mail address. Plus, you get to help put Hallmark out of business. At least e-cards allow people to add a personal message to go with the dancing monkeys that brighten peoples’ days.

Well friend, I just wanted to catch up and tell you what was on my mind. I hope to receive a letter from you soon telling me how you are doing and maybe give you a chance to rant.

Your pal,

Billy

Photo editor Billy Wessels is a junior news-editorial journalism major from Waxahachie.

More to Discover