Lost art? More like lost time

Has I made out the last of my Christmas cards today (late, unfortunately), I couldn't help but ponder the thought that letter writing is a dying art. Has I printed out a short letter to send a few people, I quickly realized why it has lost almost all of its appeal. First, if you are a traditionalist, you will hand write your card. This can take a while depending on your thoughts, penmanship, and mistakes made. Then, you must fold the paper and stick it in a proper sized envelope. If none exist, it is off to the store for you. Then, you must seal the envelope and address it. This means pulling out your address book and hoping the individual hasn't moved since the last time you wrote. Then, you have to add your address, which isn't too bad if you have your own stickers to use. Then, its time for postage! If your card is odd shaped, or weights a fraction of an ounce more than it should, you will have to pay extra, or risk having it come back "insufficient postage". Once that is all figured out, you must get it into the mail somehow. You could hang it off your mailbox, or inside with a little red flag to tell the kind postal worker that there is outgoing mail. What if you don't trust your neighborhood? What if you are afraid that the postman will lose it on his way back to the post office? This means you have to make a stop at the post office, or some nearby post box. Add up all the time, postage, and gas, and its no wonder people prefer to use any other means of communication instead of writing. If I had taken the time to write this out in letter form to send to all of you, it probably would reach you sometime in early spring 2011.