Why don't you write?

I always think of our modern times as being characterized, in part, by an excess of communication. Phone, email, text, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and blogs flood our days with the details of our friend's lives and yet, I still miss my long distance friends. I always think people a century ago must have had to wait weeks before getting important news about their loved ones. Then I read in National Geographic that a century ago, in large cities like New York, the mail was delivered up to seven times per day and that people used postcards to invite each other for dinner, inquire about their health or love life, or just say hello.

In that context, it would seem that we have always had the desire to communicate to each other on a frequent basis. I'll venture a guess, however, it was only the elite and the wealthy that had the opportunity to sit at home all day sending missives back and forth. The working class would have been slaving away 12-14 hours a day in a factory or someone else's home, and would have to wait to find out if something wonderful or dreadful had happened to a loved one. In that regard, we've made great progress. As annoying as it may be that we so addicted to communication, sometimes to the point that we use it to ignore or avoid actual in person communication, there is something lovely about the fact that should a person be accepted to a school, have a baby or come down with an illness, they can tell their loved ones right away regardless of their economic station.