In our thoroughly saturated hyper-connected digital age of emails, texts, IMs and DMs,

the act of writing a personal letter with actual pen and paper has come to symbolize slower

communication in slower times.

Is it a lost art? Well, the act and intention of letter writing is an ancient and deeply personal

and meaningful practice. St. Paul wrote to the Greeks and Romans to tell them how to live their

lives. Romeo didn't get that letter about Juliet faking her death,

and you know the mess that happened because of it. A lover breaking up with their partner has been

known to send a Dear John letter, a term popularized during World War II. Elvis Presley kept getting

return to sender replies to his please. Pat Boone wrote love letters in the sand.

Lonely men have been known to sit right down and write themselves a letter.

Whether you're the writer or the reader, a handwritten note sent in the mail, can help

articulate feelings you never knew you had. And it's certainly the love letter that is a

perfect example of the power and personal nature of the written missive.

Of all the letters we've ever had the pleasure to receive and tuck safely away, none are more cherished than love letters.

There are paintings depicting the writing and reading of love letters that go back centuries.

In another Elvis Presley tune, he croons that rather than originating from the tip of a pen

making contact with a piece of paper, somehow the sentiments keeping him from feeling lonely

at night came straight from the heart.

In fact, he repeatedly got some sort of thrill from actually kissing his lover's signature

at the end of the letter.

Try doing that with an email.

And it's not just what people say in their letters that makes us cherish them.

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