It’s simple really, just ritual and folded paper, bit of artwork, a perfect slogen, a joke, a sentiment, a signature. With greeting cards and (come mid-February, valentines) the medium is the message and the message is generally, slogan or no, “I got you a card.” But what do the cards we send and recieve (or feel like we ought to send, or wish we’d recieved) say about the relationships that occasion them? The long-running Hallmark motto says their cards are for “When you care enough to send the very best”—a message that has as much to do with the sender’s ideas about himself as those about his recipient. The Dayspring line of Christian greeting cards (purchased a few years back by the Hallmark company) is more ambitious, motto-wise: “Connecting people with the heart of God through messages of hope and encouragement. Every day. Everywhere.” Can a piece of creased cardboard (or its e-equivalent) really be all that? Perhaps not, but as they say it’s the thought that counts. So: what do you all think?
—Nate Barksdale
(thanks to Jay and Christy for the suggestion)
People who can read & write (or draw cute pictures); availability of paper, pens, etc.
And…relationships.
—Jared Add your own comment . . .Sometimes cards assume the world should be more connected, more effusive with love and language. And a little slower.
Sometimes they assume a certain measure of responsibility to maintain placid relationships with some paper and postage.
Maybe sometimes they even assume people’s hearts are easily bought or manipulated.
—Jared Add your own comment . . .In a tech-connected world, cards make possible something truly special: communicating a person’s worth through the combination of time, money and thought it takes to send a (real) card.
If I receive an email, I know that person thought about me the moment they sent the email. If I receive a card, I know that person thought about me more, with more depth and care. An encouraging email is a treat. An encouraging card gets taped to filing cabinet.
—Jared Add your own comment . . .Perhaps the valentine/card business makes more difficult spontaneous communication of love and appreciation, since there always seems to be another, official reason to buy & send a card.
—Jared Add your own comment . . .Is Hallmark a culture? Surely greeting card stores and even aisles are a little culture unto themselves, where puns are passed off as deep humor and we seem to be able to redefine the trite as “that’s a nice thought.”
Valentine’s Day in 3rd grade is its own little culture, too. Give and collect. See who has the most.
More positively: cards have been a part of the culture that exists between my wife and I. We speak our own language, share the same shorthand of stories and never need to sign anything with more than “I love you.”
—Jared Add your own comment . . .