When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best...

My wife makes cards. They're really good too. She and a bunch of chicks that we know from church are all into card making, stamping, scrap-booking, etc. It's kind of a sickness, but as far as addictions go, I guess it's not a bad one.

May, June & July seem to have a decent amount of cards that are made for friends and family around here, so I usually have a card or two sitting on my computer or somewhere near where most of my activities take place with a pen and a note to please say something nice and sign it so Cheryl can mail out her latest masterpiece.

I usually procrastinate the writing and signing until Cheryl gives me the "I need to mail that tomorrow to get it to (insert name here) in time." I hate doing that to her, but the pressure to come up with something new and exciting to say to people that makes them feel good on their special day is tough. Especially when you are the funny, sensitive guy.

I started thinking about this yesterday, because the reminder from Cheryl came for me to write something nice to my Dad for Father's Day. I stared at the wonderfully created card and wondered what to write on it's blank canvas. It's always tough for me to write something really nice to my Dad that I haven't said before. The truth is, my Dad is a great guy. I love him, so it's easy to say he's a nice Dad and he always took care of me, blah, blah, blah. It just starts to feel like I've said it all before.

The truth is, my Dad wouldn't remember if I put together a three year rotation of nice things to say to him. While I feel like I am repeating everything, he would just think compliment iPod was on shuffle. My Dad is not the type to really care about the mushy stuff that I might write anyway. I hate to say this, but I wonder if he even reads the cards. I'm sure my Mom reads them to him at least.

Cheryl's Dad is now asking her to throw a childhood memory into her Father's Day cards. Thankfully, Cheryl has a good memory. My scope of feel good stories is rather limited in some ways. A lot of my childhood memories involved me being a pain in the butt and getting in trouble. They're funny of course, but not exactly the kind of stories that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I remember when we used to just go to Hallmark or the drug store and pick out a card. That is what we paid those greeting card writers for. They came up with some sappy, well thought out words to make the recipient feel like you loved them. Plus, you spent a good 10 to 15 minutes looking for just the right card that had a good picture on it and something inspiring written inside. Those were the days. Buy it, sign it, send it or better yet hand it to the person.

Some people have even taken it a step further and made it almost effortless. E-Cards. You know someone sort of thinks of you sometimes when you get one of these links in your email inbox. Especially if like me, you only look at the freebies. For some reason the idea of paying for something intangible in cyberspace is too much for me. If I am paying for the E-Card, I want the person to be able to read it, put their hands on it and throw it away. The computer trash can doesn't count.

So the next time you get a card from someone think about all the anxiety that went into it. It should make you smile to know that someone felt intense pressure to write something nice for you on your special day.