Cards! Cards! Cards! Against all odds, Christmas Cards and Seasons Greetings are arriving in droves! Each day our little P.O. Box is full to over-flowing and, already, the piano-top is crowded with colorful expressions of love and friendship.
We open them eagerly – usually as we are eating our lunch, reading each message and the wonderful, newsy letters aloud. Sometimes, I have that “we’ve turned into our parents” sort of flashback that becomes more familiar with each passing year. Always, I save the envelopes with their return addresses – ‘just in case.’ A ridiculous habit, really, considering I just emptied the big bowl full of last year’s accumulation.
This is the third or fourth year that we (make that ‘I’) haven’t sent cards. My exceedingly lame excuse is “no time” which makes no sense at all now that we are (make that ‘I am’) retired and, especially this year, with all those long days sitting at Nyel’s hospital bedside. I’m pretty sure, too, that ‘social media’ and all the connectedness inherent in that phenomenon plays into my inertia. We have never sent out cards ‘locally’ and, now, we are all closer to one another than ever. Somehow I fool myself into feeling that Christmas greetings are redundant.
Even so, I feel a little guilty, especially as we bask in the pleasure of cards from near and far. It’s a guilty feeling that extends right into to our little post office. Not too long ago, it (the oldest continuously operated post office in the state) was threatened with closure and we were told that the volume of mail handled there would factor heavily in future considerations. Now that so many of us try to buy into the save-a-tree concept, paying our bills online and even cancelling all those catalogues in favor of online shopping, it seems wrong to cut out Christmas cards, as well.
Still and all… our appreciation for all those greetings knows no bounds! I keep vowing to send out Valentine’s Cards. Maybe this year it will actually happen.