I’m one of those traditionalists who still believes in writing thank you notes for gifts. That means that near the end of January I am feeling guilty if I have not yet written notes of thanks for my Christmas presents. So, that’s where I find myself today.
As I was running errands tonight, I decided to pick up some thank you cards. I happened to be in Office Depot, knowing that they would have stationery of some sort. Seems that the only stationery I could find was designed to be run through a printer. There was nothing smaller than letter-size paper. I did not find any thank you cards. Hmm.
I had to go to Wal-Mart as well, so I checked out their stationery selection. I could hardly find it. Again, they only seemed to have the kind of paper you use to print out party invitations or family newsletters. Surely they would have thank you cards. Finally I found them. They were all marked at clearance prices. Cool. I picked up four 10-packs at 75 cents each.
But will they restock their thank you cards? With email being so simple and easy, we can quickly acknowledge gifts with very little effort. But there’s just something about a “hard copy” note.
Going through old files a few days ago, I found some old letters my parents had written to me in the 1980s. It touched my heart to see what they had said to me then. I had forgotten the depth of their love for me and my new wife. Then I thought about how I would miss having those notes, if email had been available in those days. I doubt we would have exchanged letters much at all.
I don’t hate technology, but there is still something very special about a good old-fashioned letter.
