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Pen Pals Are Hip!By: Bob Burdick By definition, pen pals are indeed "hip," but what you may not know is pen pals are also happier and they live longer than their human counterparts who shun companionship. You see, medical studies have long shown that exercise and eating right can help us feel better and live longer, but scientists are now convinced that the quality of our relationships-our communication with others, in particular-also plays a vital role. Why is this? It's our genetic makeup, our natural gravitation to seek company with others. Ignoring this need is unhealthy. "But pen pals are a dying breed," you say. Wrong. The only thing dying is the perception of what a pen pal is. In Granny's day, the era of three-cent stamps and penny postcards, the pen-pal world reined through snail mail, to borrow an expression from today's jargon. And while a message exchange with her friend in England took weeks, when that reply arrived, all else in Granny's life stopped until she'd read it over and over again. There was nothing unique about Granny and her pen pal-countless others around the world were doing the same thing-but there were many special things about them. The greatest was they became close friends, although they never met face to face. This is interesting when you consider how most of us develop a friendship. Typically, at first meeting, we weigh the looks of another, their facial expressions as they speak, their tone, their gestures, and their body language. Only by successfully moving past this stage do we open ourselves to friendship. Granny and her pen pal had none of this as a cornerstone; they had only the written word to build a friendship and it prevailed despite living an ocean apart. Now let's return to the fallacious notion that pen pals are a dying breed. To see the error in this thinking, first consider that the meaning of a pen pal is simply, "A person with whom one becomes acquainted through a friendly, regular correspondence." With this definition in mind, think of our modern, electronic world. Even after backing out the volume of spam and business mail, millions of emails are exchanged daily among friends, many of whom have never met. And then there are the chat rooms (an overwhelming favorite among the younger generation); the instant messenger servers, such as Windows and AOL, and the tens of thousands of E-groups whose members share a particular interest. No, the pen-pal world is not dying; it is, in fact, now stronger and larger than ever. If you haven't given this wholesome pastime a try, now's the perfect time to do so, as June is National Pen Pal Month. Find yourself a new friend. A good step toward achieving this goal is Inky Trail News, a bimonthly publication dedicated to friendship.
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