RE: Aging and Writing Memoirs: The Process of Remembering
I appreciate the thoughtful comment @the-gorilla!
Personally, I do find people's stories fascinating... particularly when they come from an era long gone. I have old family photo albums that also include "letters home" from early 1930's vacations across Europe... and it's fascinating to see just how different things were, back then.
Interesting what you were saying about our handwritten notes... there are already many kids now who simply cannot read cursive writing. In fact, our kids — in their early 30's — even struggle a bit with handwriting from the early 1900's.
Time seems to move "faster" these days... and so perhaps what we share "crosses more eras" than it once did. Personal computers were not "a thing" when I was little. Mobile phones were not "a thing" till I closed on age 30. I still hand write letters, sometimes, to some of my older relations.
I struggle to read my own handwriting let alone somebody else's 🤣
I'm "only" 40 and the changes in my lifetime are remarkable and as you suggest, accelerating - possibly beyond the point of benefitting society.
There will always be something special about sitting down and hand writing something. It will always be more considered, more thoughtful. If you (not you specifically 🙂) edit / delete something hand written like you would with an email (or post) then you'd likely run out of paper!!
I'd love for you to share some of your old letters home to hear what you wrote about. I remember the challenge of trying to work out what stamps were needed to get a letter from wherever I was home, always fearing that I hadn't bought enough and that they would never make it.