Reach Out and Touch Someone

Communication happens in many ways, though the technological age has erased much of the evidence. I remember letters. Paper sheets with writing that arrived in envelopes and sometimes might include a small black and white photo or a nice bookmark to treasure. Someones actual hand took time to hold a pen, write the words with errors intact and paid a small postage to send a warm greeting your way.
And then there was the telephone. Not the cell phone equipped with text, Im, photo and GPS but the 45 pound black desk model with a cord long enough to tie up your sibling should they annoy you. The loud RING RING and the rotary dial. It took work to make that call. You could hear the voice on the other end and you knew you had made contact.
Now we are in the space age with things moving at the speed of speed! Whipping around in the great cyber abyss are zillions of communications all simultaneously traveling to a lucky recipient. The communication happens so fast that in a blink it is over, done, and most often forgotten. No tangible record it ever occurred in most cases as people make room for more communication by hitting delete. Delete! Gone are the pieces of our history, memories of our day, tokens of affection. Gone! And it leaves me wondering often, where does it go, how does it get there, did it get there, is it like a beam from Star Trek?
I have tried to save some of this cyber info and it is impossible to track and salvage the blips of conversation that occur. Instead of one conversation or a two page letter you get forty individual texts in reply to your forty individual text. And we don't even use real words...LOL. While these moments provide instant, momentary gratification, like many bad habits we can develop, it is short lived. In a week or a month we will not remember what day we talked to who about what and why we were interested in whatever it was anyway.
Then there is my garage. With large tubs of cards, letters, and pictures drawn from friends and family past. I can touch them, reread them and remember that moment in time. While downsizing is popular I have yet o be able to just toss things away. I am trying to sort through and keep only those cards with actual letters or notes included, instead of those simply signed Love Someone. But even then I think someone one spent their hard earned money on that card and mailed it, and now it is a keepsake because Garfield is out but he was so in when it was mailed. I could start my own museum of historical and some hysterical communications.
On the bright side, at least people are staying in touch. My nephews for instance, won't write, rarely call and only occasionally will use email. BUT the will text, send me elves who dance and pictures of what ever they are doing. So in it's own way, maybe it has changed who will reach out and touch someone. Certainly those cards and letters were not from the youth of the day but parents, siblings, grandparents, and a few friends.
I guess the important thing is whatever method is for you, call, text, tweet, email or write someone you love. Just Reach out and touch someone! It is a great thing for you to stay in touch, but, for that person receiving your message it is pure Gold!