Writing on the wall

My cards from last year

Greeting cards. Is it a dying tradition? A passing fad was the one page newsletter about what the family did throughout the year. I don't receive any of those any more. I used to get about three a year. I kind of lost contact with the folks who sent them out, so maybe they still do.

There are religious cards (usually the nativity), scenic cards (snowy country setting with church or cozy house), cutesy cards (little critters and such), shiny and satiny ones, ornament ones, Peace, Happy Holidays, holly and ivy, birds, snowmen... just about anything you can think of has ended up on a Christmas card.

Is it a waste of money? A waste of paper material? Do you purchase recycled cards? I have. Not every year. I have also purchased ones that contribute to the welfare of pets. Card companies make a killing. There are always shelves of cards left over after the holiday. Do they save them for next year?

Do you add a personal note or just sign your name(s)? I receive a few pre-printed cards with the family names printed neatly inside. Do you print your addresses from a computer and stick them on the envelope? Does this take away the personalized feeling of a card?

Do you include confetti inside your card? The recipient opens it up and a cupful of stuff falls out and onto the floor. Then they shake their fist in the air! "Why that dirty so and so! Now, look at the mess I have to clean up!" Nobody likes confetti inside a card. Nobody. Stop it. Send a lottery ticket inside a card if you have to put something inside it. LOL! Just kidding.

I don't participate in the state lottery. And, I especially don't participate in chain e-mails or letters of any kind. I've had a few people angry with me because I broke the chain. I tell them I don't do that sort of thing. I am not overly religious. I just don't believe in them. There just seems to be something wrong about it.

Of course there is a reason I don't participate in chain e-mails. Because I have to try and un-clog bogged down networks. Especially when we get an e-mail storm. Too much traffic causes congestion. No matter if it is cars or Internet packets. Why is your connection so slow? Because somebody somewhere is forwarding that last joke to everyone in their contact list and it has a "ripple effect". I'm not saying don't send any more jokes. I love a good joke.

I just remove all of the junk out before I send the joke and I only send it to people I think will appreciate the joke. If you receive a letter in the postal mail, do you re-stuff the original envelope into the new envelope before you re-send it to your friend or relative? No, of course not. And, can you imagine how big this letter would get by the time twenty people re-stuffed the letter without removing the envelopes that contained their address? Adding packet after packet on top of the previous e-mail causes the entire message to grow and grow and grow. Until it is an actual elephant trudging through the backbone of the Internet. Now, multiply that by years of people sending and re-sending the same jokes. Pretty soon our networks won't move at all.