I was watching a Charlie Rose interview with Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney this morning while I was getting ready for work.

In it, they were talking about the movie Solaris. Soderbergh wrote the screenplay and sent it to Clooney for his feedback. (By the way, Soderbergh said that he didn't have Clooney in mind to play any of the parts when he wrote it.)

After reading it, however, Clooney thought that he would enjoy and be good at playing the main character. So what did he do? Did he pick up the phone and call Soderbergh? No. Did he email him? No.

Instead he wrote him a long letter outlining his case and mailed it to him. What a unique thought!

Rose asked Clooney why he did it that way and he said that there are just things that require time and attention. He added that when you take the time to sit down and write a letter, then fold it, seal it, stamp it and find a mailbox to mail it in, you've been able think about the worth and viability of the contents.

Soderbergh agreed, saying that when he got the actual letter from Clooney, he had time to mull it over and make a better decision about his response than he would have if Clooney had just called or emailed him. And although I haven't seen the movie, it sounds like it was a good pairing, as it's gotten more positive reviews than negative ones.

My mother gave me a box of letters several years ago that I had written her in the early days of my marriage and during the period when I was having babies. They have given me many moments of delight, surprise, reflection, sadness, but most of all, perspective.

In this "throw away" culture and times of rapid response, I must admit that I'm not ready to discard my email account(s) and phone(s). But an actual letter sometimes is nice and a relic of the past that I hope doesn't completely go away.