A GodWink: The Personal, Handwritten Note

Alright texters, hear this:   You can exchange quick little snippets day and night on your mobile devices, laughing out loud, rolling on the floor or whatever, but you've not really lived until you've received a card via U.S. mail (you might call it "snail mail"), handwritten, addressed directly to you, and inside a note, handwritten, to you, and to you only.  


Today I retrieved such a treasure from my post office box, sent by a wonderful woman, a member of my church  whom I rarely see, and usually then only from a distance, but whose countenance and spirit exude such peace and love that it is just a good thing to behold her, wave to her and exchange smiles from across a room or down a hallway.  Her smile spreads warmth that can be felt, like a nice Pashmina draped over shivering shoulders, or the hooded "house coat" that belonged to my Sweet Pea's paternal grandmother, and in which Sweet Pea likes to wrap herself and hunker down for comfort.


On a day like today, [of which I wrote in my previous blog (Remembering Mr. G)], haunted by a premonition that something wasn't quite right, I received this precious and priceless gift of spiritual affirmation and encouragement, opening it just at the moment when I was about to lecture God on the relevance of human contact.  (Yes, I do have some nerve!)   Before I could plow into my soapbox speech (Now, God, I know You see me down here . . . . .), as I opened the card and began reading, God winked at me, and stilled my tongue and my thoughts.


So what's the big deal?   Think about what goes into the production of The Personal, Handwritten Note.

• someone has to think of you
• the thought of you has to be so compelling that the thinker is prompted to act
• in case you haven't tried it lately, and especially if your handwriting is like mine, some effort is invested to write complete, coherent thoughts that another person will be able to read, filter and understand the intended message
• there is some sacrifice involved, as in placing one's thoughts on paper, the writer is sending a part of him/herself
• the writer invests resources of paper, ink, envelope and stamp (for some this may not be a big deal, but whether great or small, the person who thought of you evidently thinks you're worth the effort)

As one who lives closely with Technology (yes, just as The Personal, Handwritten Note is capitalized, so has Technology taken personage, just like The Weight [lots of which I need to lose, but that's for another blog on another day]), and as much as I appreciate Technology which affords me abilities beyond my own humanity, the satisfaction of acquiring the many computers and peripheral devices I have acquired over the last 20 years, or working my magic as one of my lawyers still says today (even after 22 years of magic), cannot in any way measure up to the warmth and gratification of receiving The Personal, Handwritten Note.