A while back, while reading a selection of letters by the itinerant Quaker minister Elias Hicks (1748-1830), I was impressed by the length and quality of some of the individual correspondence. These were pieces that could have been published essays, yet were addressed to a specific individual – pieces, I should add, from a farmer by trade.
I’m left wondering about the amount of time some Friends (and others, of course) spent daily or weekly in reading and writing as well as reflecting on the issues at hand.
Don’t tell me it was a slower era or that they had more time to employ – labor was more demanding and often tedious, after all. I think something else is at play here.
As I said, I’m impressed.
Jnana's Red Barn 
Once upon a time, I engaged in a lengthy postal correspondence with a friend who lived in a place where there was no phone service. (This was before the advent of the cell phone.) We discussed all manner of things, often at great length. Our letters typically ran to ten pages, and I spent a good many hours composing and hand-writing them every week. I’m certain we covered topics we would never have discussed on the phone, in part because the act of writing lent itself to greater deliberation than conversation usually affords.
My guess is that you still have them … at least the ones you received. What a treasured memory.