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May 7, 2005
House of Cards
Here's a thought to follow up on last week's idea about wedding thank you cards. Why spend $3.50 for a folded piece of paper that says happy birthday, includes someone else's ideas, and which your family member will promptly toss into the trash. This is a waste of money and is poor stewardship of our environment. This is not to suggest that we should do away with birthday cards. In fact, I think we need to send letters, notes, cards and other personalized communications as much as we can. But let's be smart about it.
Why not have one card that your family members send back and forth to each other? For example, for my sister's birthday I could send her a large blank card that I would write a small meaningful note in. Then she would send that card with a personal note to my other sister, whose birthday comes next. For my birthday, this sister would send the card to me. I would hold onto this card until my brother's birthday, at which point I would write a little note and send it to him. He would then send the card to the next birthday person, which happens to be our mother. And she would later send it to the next person, and so on. You get the point.
This system would have many advantages. First, you would only need to send one card out per year (for birthdays that you don't have "the card," you should call or email your good wishes). Second, it would reduce paper production and disposal costs. Third, it would give those people who are really bad at sending cards a sort of training program to do this more. (Once a year is better than not at all, and it is certainly manageable.) Finally, the card would represent a record of our wishes to each other. It would serve as an archive of our familial affections, and for some families it might actually tie them together better. Perhaps at Christmas time the card could be read out loud to everyone that takes part. In any case, I think it could be more meaningful than what many of us do today, which sadly is nothing.
Posted by fstone at May 7, 2005 10:20 AM
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