We received a Christmas card the other day….I didn’t know who it was from, I mean, I could read the name, but I’d never heard of the person. I figured it was someone Kirk knew. When he came home I asked if he knew a Ralph Sutton? He said “sure, so do you, he taught us VHF radio” I said, ” No, that’s Ralph Hutton”. So, that’d be a no. We get cards from the newspaper carrier, and we don’t really know them…but neither one of us can figure out who Ralph Sutton is…a boating class student maybe? He doesn’t look familiar. Oh yeah, forgot that part, it’s a form card, with pictures of him, his family, and his house in the winter snow. Oh, and on the back it says something about the North Vancouver Riding Club or something like that….not a member, never been there. It’s a mystery really… a dig around in Google yields Ralph as an MLA for the West Vancouver – Capilano riding. Am I in that riding? Maybe, I live in lower Capilano, but in North Vancouver…so maybe that’s it, he’s our Provincial MLA…OK…mystery solved….but do I really need a Christmas card from a politician?
But it got me thinking…how many people send cards out still? I used to send out many more than I do now. A few years ago I started making cards to save money and as a bit of a creative outlet.One year I sent out a bunch of ecards, but they felt kind of fake, like it cheapened Christmas somehow. But it made me wonder why we send cards every year to people we rarely see. Lots of people seem to have quit sending them, but I persevere and continue to send them. Why? Well, I suppose that Christmas is a time to reach out and say hello, tell people that you still think about them and show it by sending a little note. I admit that I have dropped a few people off my list simply because they never respond. Eventually you give up on people I suppose..but I’ll keep sending them to many….my way of sending well wishes to those I still think about at least once a year.
And so it goes….