In a few weeks, after this semester ends, I will be on a plane bound for Denver. It will be for many reasons, I grew up there, my parents, sister, daughter, son in law and granddaughter are there, as well as an aunt and a few cousins. But it's not only to visit, and do my part for my parents, but also to help them (both in their 80s and pack rats to boot), sort out their house. It's a trip I have made whenever there is a chance, and a trip I make will the future.
On one such trip I handed my mother a bag of stuff. Papers mostly, or so I thought. Inside that bag was another bag and this one was full of Christmas cards. And I watched her read each one.
She would open the card and read the name, often a long passed relative or friend and she'd think about them, talk about them and reminisce. Sometimes she'd admit that she hadn't thought about them for years.
Sometimes all it took was seeing their signature or a line or two of their handwriting. She'd go back in time and "touch" them.
It was then I understood the additional impact of a persons signature. It's not just something that say "this is me," but from the other side "this is you." This is a part of you, this is part of your character, part of what is associated with you.
This was brought home to me again when I bought my grandparents Carrom/Crokinole board from my uncle.
It was sent to me pretty much untouched as it had been for decades. As I opened it I noticed a piece of paperboard stuck to the interior wall of the box. It was a campaign poster my cousin had made for his campaign for position in high school student government in the mid 70s.
This was my cousin who committed suicide in 2004. I sat there gazing at this poster that had traveled through time with his handwriting and unique signature and I remembered him with laughter and tears. I took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook, tagging his widow (she has now remarried). And for a brief period of time she was transported back too.
No one knows why that poster was in the Carrom/Crokinole box - but it's power as a time capsule couldn't be denied.
I couldn't ignore or deny what I was seeing an experiencing myself as my mother went through this Christmas card collection. She'd run her hand over the card, read the card, the signature and any letter included (those would also prove valuable), soon my father joined her in the exercise. It was slow going, but invaluable for two people who have lived so long, done and seen so much, and for the younger people there to witness it, to share in the memories or to learn new stories to add to the family folklore.
We found more bags of cards, and this process was repeated again and again.
The more we did the more I also began to understand what we are loosing in our digital e-card world.
Reading is not only a visual to brain activity, it is also a tactile activity, and it is tied to retention of what we read. I use to wonder why I preferred some textbooks to be on paper, while others (my readings for Contemporary Literature) were fine on my Kindle. It has everything to do with what I am reading and why. Running my hands over the pages, taking out my highlighter, writing in the margins, flipping the pages, are all part of the tactile need in reading to retain what you read. It may also be that smell and hearing is also tied to retention, smell of the ink, the paper, the highlighter, hear the page turn etc.
Understanding how reading on paper is different from reading on screens requires some explanation of how the brain interprets written language. We often think of reading as a cerebral activity concerned with the abstract—with thoughts and ideas, tone and themes, metaphors and motifs. As far as our brains are concerned, however, text is a tangible part of the physical world we inhabit. In fact, the brain essentially regards letters as physical objects because it does not really have another way of understanding them. As Wolf explains in her book Proust and the Squid, we are not born with brain circuits dedicated to reading. After all, we did not invent writing until relatively recently in our evolutionary history, around the fourth millennium B.C. So the human brain improvises a brand-new circuit for reading by weaving together various regions of neural tissue devoted to other abilities, such as spoken language, motor coordination and vision. - Scientific American
It may also be that the smell of the ink, the paper, the highlighter, etc is also part of reading retention.
Those things also contribute to retaining memories, and recalling them.
The smell of the ink used way back when, the maybe dated images of boys in bright orange and yellow plaid trousers, the feel of the weight of the paper, the hand written note, or a signature of a beloved but long dead relative, forgotten only because of the hecticness of modern life. The holiday card is important, and carries more than an ecard ever can or will.
Real time, solid, paper cards aren't just quaint outdated expressions, they are time capsules for the future. For us, for our friends and family to open again at some later date and remember us. Maybe after we've died, to stave off our second death - when the last person who knew us and remembers us dies.
To remember and to be remembered.
This year send some holiday cards. Many cards are made with recycled paper and not only will you be helping the post office, but there are many charities who sell holiday cards that you can help as well.
Here are a few:
UNICEF
American Cancer Society
Art Institute of Chicago
Arbor Day Foundation
Broadway Cares
Children's Hospital of Michigan
Arts for Life
City Harvest
Elephant Sanctuary
Faces of Siberia
Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
Guide Dog Foundation
and I haven't even scratched the surface.
Look here, here, here, and here for more
AND if you don't see your favorite charity listed, look on their web page. They may have some that didn't make it into a link farm.
You can also support Kossacks by looking through the Kos Katalogue.
Several Kossacks take beautiful pictures and I'm surprised not to see them offered as holiday/greeting cards through Cafe Press, Zazzle or Esty.
Yes I'm hinting heavily at a few kossacks. But even if I've had little to no interaction with you and you take beautiful photographs, or create beautiful art (which you could also take a photograph of) think about creating some cards for your personal use or to sell in the Katalogue.
SaraR and Winglion could also take pictures of their non dedicated but still beautiful quilts and make them into holiday/greeting cards.
Yes they will be a bit more expensive, they will be "short run" after all. But sometimes for art and support it's more than worth it.
You may wish to tell your recipients that cards are time machines. That as much joy as they bring now . . .
. . . and really since we are far more digitally oriented getting something in snail mail that isn't a bill or trying to sell us something is a pleasure (maybe even more than when we were kids and finally got mail addressed to us) . . .
. . . they can bring joy later. Gather the cards (and letters) together after the holidays, put them in a bag, and store them in a keepsake box.
Encourage your recipients to send you a card too . . . so when you are old, or when they are old and you are gone, you, they, can be remembered and will remember.
(Diariest note: Yes I also received an email from DK asking that I write again. I was already planning on doing this diary and publishing on this date. So I'm not sure if you can out this diary to that email.