Touching Is Believing

I am a toucher. It probably goes back to some fortunate—or unfortunate—experience in my youth (doesn’t it always?), the end result of which is that my sense of touch is as acute as my hearing or sight in relaying information to me about my world. I don’t buy a car based only on performance or gas mileage or looks…I also have to enjoy how the steering wheel slides under my fingers, how the clutch performs to the demands of my sole and how the door reverberates in my hand when I close it. I feel the same way about people, though I gave up randomly touching strangers on the street when I moved to a planned community in 1989. But a good handshake, a squeeze of the shoulder or a chaste hug can tell me more about a person than direct eye contact, a British accent, or a shifty slouch ever could. So when I saw a picture of the new Vox Luxury stationery box (the Writer), I thought, “Hm, nice stationery box.” Then I got one. The rosewood veneer exterior is smooth and flawlessly finished, and the interior is a whole city of compartments for everything from stamps to stationery to pens (a letter opener is included) accented by brass-plated hinges and screws. Each compartment is covered in a soft neutral suede-like textile, and ecru laid stationery (also included) rests in its own little upholstered apartment. A tasseled brass key that locks the whole thing up serves—at least in my case—as yet another tactile accoutrement on my happy road to discernment.