Love Notes

The other evening on the crowded train home, I stood by a man reading a note written on graph paper. What caught my eye was the kisses - three sets of mocha lipmarks dotted the page that was already jam-packed with text. The man looked like he was re-reading it, thinking about each sentence as he went along. It must have been a good one.

I thought about the ways we communicate now as compared with the pre-internet/SMS era, and I remembered the letters my grandmother wrote to my grandfather while he was on the road. It wasn't what they talked about, but the tone and intimacy of the written words, spelled out fully and thoughtfully in handwriting on old stationery. I am sure this man on the train would not have taken the same pleasure from an email version of this letter, even if there were kisses attached in a PDF.