My Sons are all wired in to the internet so completely that I thought I was doing a great thing. One year for my older guy’s birthday I sent an email birthday card instead of the old snail mail one.
Boy did I get an earful. I think the kindest thing he said was lazy good for nothing excuse for a father. I think he felt strongly about it!
Beyond the fact that I couldn’t fold a few dollar bills into the e-card I ignored the most important concept about sending greetings. The post office calls it the mail moment. They even did a study on it. The study concluded that even in this day of e-mail and instant or text messaging we all like to get personal mail. In fact 55% of Americans look forward everyday to seeing what the postman might bring.
Most folks think that e-mail killed the post office. Au contraire. It has boosted it. All those things sold every day on e-bay? All five million new items daily? Most are shipped by the good old P.O.
The big DVD service netflix? All shipped by First Class mail.
The thing about getting a personal letter is that it has emotional content. No matter how creative you get in your text message nothing beats the old fashioned process of getting a greeting card on your birthday. I have a business contact who I have known for more than 3 decades. This person is completely up to speed with the internet and sends me 15 e-mails a week keeping me up to date on the business side.
But every year for my birthday and for Christmas I get a handwritten note in a card. It’s just nice and in this world, nice goes a long way.
ED NOTE: Written for radio in October of 2005
-30-
