"It's no use pretending that you are an ordinary woman. Quite clearly, like this pen, you are not. I don't mean , for a second, that you are in any way comparable with a pen. And yet you are, like this divine pen you are heavy and light at the same time...How to watch the puritanical face relax into slow lust? How to watch that watch catch its breath, and, for a speck of a speck of a millionth of a second, become the animal that all men seek for in their women? And since we're talking of pens and you, how to watch the ink splurge out of the pen...reaching out from the inner depth of the divine body..."
-Richard Burton in a hand written letter to his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, thanking her for the Christmas gift of a fountain pen, and using the pen as an elaborate metaphor to praise her.
(A Love too Big to Last, Vanity Fair, July 2010)
What happened to the way we write? Or for that matter, the way we communicate? A social phenomenon has occurred during our lifetime. It will fascinate our children that we actually remember a time when people were not text messaging on mobile phones. And although this new technology has allowed most of the universe to stay connected in a revolutionary way, if we are not careful something will be lost. I can't imagine our great-grandchildren reading our emails will be quite as special as reading hand written love letters.
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