January 7

I used to write a lot of letters. As a child I had penpals. I spent a year in England in my teens and kept in constant contact via mail with my best friend in Australia. My sister has shoeboxes of my letters written as a young mother. Even just a few years ago, I wrote long illustrated tomes to my daughter. What happened?

I still keep in touch. I send birthday and Christmas cards to friends, family, even my Grade 6 teacher (who, ironically, wrote back last week saying how nice it was to receive my cards but she would love to HEAR ABOUT MY LIFE.) That's just it ... I don't seem to share so much anymore. Am I just less voluble, or maybe less self-absorbed? I somehow can't summon the desire to share the minutiae of my life in a letter. I prefer the ten-words-or-less snappy immediacy of a Facebook status.

Kinda sad in a way. I used to feel like I was defending one of snail mail's last bastions. But I seem to have abandoned the post.