Une invitation au bal royal?

I've always been fascinated by closed doors. The unrealised possibility of what lies behind them is tantalising. It could be anything. Perhaps it's a TARDIS. Perhaps it's Narnia. Perhaps it's something more incredible still. The moment the door is opened, then what lies beyond is revealed as not merely ordinary, but banal. But until that moment, the imagination has free reign. This is why at the end of one adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles Watson says, “The Hound of the Baskervilles is a figment of the imagination” only for Holmes to respond, “But without the imagination there would be no horror.”

But yesterday I discovered or rediscovered something even more powerful than the unopened door: the unopened envelope.

Letters have been made banal by junk mailings and bank statements. This letter instantly towers above that. Why?

'Chateau de Versailles' carries an incredible amount of weight, especially for someone who has some understanding of what those three words symbolise. This is also monogrammed stationery. Those three words aren't applied by stamp or sticker.

It's also addressed by hand. That lends it an air of the personal in an era of faceless communication. No cheap see through windows onto printed text here.

Then, lifted above the mundane, the magic of the sealed envelope works its magic. It could be anything in there. Perhaps an invitation to a royal ball?

Something in me has changed in the past year. I've always been gung-ho about technology and I remain interested in its capability to solve problems. But I've started to see how fragile technology can be, the problems that can arise through the complexity it creates, its impermanence, and its inability to evoke a powerful sensory response. An email can never look like this letter, not without far greater effort and cost than would be required by the letter which I can physically touch.

I'm not sure what's chamged. Perhaps it's my age. Perhaps it's maturity in my profession. Perhaps it's one of the transformations I've experienced. But no digital communication has ever evoked the response that this letter has. Until I open it, it could be anything, even une invitation au bal royal.