On Love Letters

I was watching the Sex and the City movie and there's a scene where Carrie is reading love letters from great men, like Napoleon and Beethoven. Carrie chides Big for never writing her love letters, and he mentions that of course the great men of the past wrote them, because they were always far away from their loves.

It got me thinking, how romance has kind of gone out the window with technology. I mean, some people fall in love with someone they meet online, hundreds, thousands of miles away sometimes. They then get upset if they don't talk every day or see each other through Skype. With planes and cars it's easier to go visit, even on a whim. In this age of technology, we get almost too attached, because why should we deny ourselves? Instant gratification-it's expected these days.

But what happened in that time when "business trips" took months? Letters were all they had. In this day and age, you stick two people in those same circumstances and I can't help but think they would almost definitely cheat on each other if the opportunity presented itself.

It's the romantic side of me, but just the idea that someone is far away, thinking about you, writing you letters, well, who wouldn't want that? So of course, in our minds, we yearn for love letters, it's the idea of them that makes us swoon. But these days, it seems all but impossible that a relationship can survive off of just that.

How did they do it back then? And would you consider those relationships stronger than modern-day attachments?

PS: If anyone wants my new mailing address, just let me know ;-)

=P