Estelle was right.

Many of my non-local pre-university friends will recall that back in my youth I had an insatiable addiction to letter writing. In those days, a letter for me wasn’t just a paragraph email or a 3 word text, but a 10 page rant of emotions. There was nothing more cathartic than a white page which acted as a blank canvas for my mind to sprawl over. I’d spend hours putting my thoughts to paper, thus releasing whole shocks of teenage electricity. A complete sense of satisfaction and comfort was felt once the sealed envelope sunk to the pit of the crimson post box. Then came the thrill while I waited for the response. My biggest problem (which still exists today) was the intensity of words that spread across the page. Often compositions I wouldn’t have been able to express verbally. Often open to misinterpretation and leading to upset. Therefore, once a day or two had passed, and no reply communication had been received, I always regretted my act. Regretted my openness, and hence experienced paranoid emotions and feelings of rejection. The latter were obviously alleviated when my reply arrived. But the reply didn’t always come. In our rapidly increasing paperless society so much of our communications are made by electronic machines. We are able to program words into this technology but have no way of expressing the necessary non-verbal cues and emotions that accompany these words. With the use of double meaning words, and misinterpreted emotions incorrect messages are read. So easy to do. So easy to offend. Without being face to face with our communicator how do we as recipient know we’ve understood properly, and whether a response is necessary? Without seeing that winking of an eye or upward curl of the lips, how do we properly interpret humor instead of sarcasm? Without observing hand gestures, and having opportunity to show body space preference, how can we obtain non-artificial closeness? So here enters the power of emotional non-verbal communication in our everyday life, along with the necessity for visual contact. How much of a person do we see? How much of a person are we allowed to see? How much does a person give away unintentionally? Words are easy to verbalize with our mouths, but they even easier to scribe with emptiness. In the majority emotional prose, it is the unsaid word that holds the key to the message; that visual glint or sadness to the eye that expresses the true meaning. One would hope that as mature adults we would become wise enough to read emotions effectively without needing face to face contact. But even written communications with those we know best can be abused or wrongly conveyed. As we move further towards our electronic equipment, one questions whether evolution will illiminate our emotions. Will it merely force us to become more like the computers and robotics we are required to manipulate? In my adult life today, I have rare opportunity to express emotional transcripts, but based on this possible assertion, would it be productive to do so anyway??!