Christmas Cards

Completely blew it on the Christmas Card front this year, and I can honestly say that hasn't happened before. Oh, sure, there have been years when I have mailed them out on December 23rd. Not this year - I whiffed on the whole thing. I could make excuses, like it was busy around here, and the truth is that it was crazy busy. I would rather look at the reason than the excuse, though, because I think it is far more productive.

Maybe there is a part of me that believes that greeting cards, on the whole, belong to a time that is passing. It was great to get a card from Aunt Helga back in the days before email. Remember those days? I realize a growing number of you don't remember those days, but I do. You could actually go a year without hearing from anybody! You couldn't catch their status on Facebook, or get a Tweet from them, or have them shoot you an email whenever they had three minutes they didn't know what to do with - and so you actually looked forward to their cards.

Often times, inside the card was a page long letter that brought you up to speed on everything that had happened during the year. Since you hadn't heard from those folks since their last Christmas card, the "year in review" notes were often kind of interesting. They were interesting on many levels - for what they contained, for the insight into what other people thought was interesting but really wasn't, for the sometimes inappropriate things they revealed (Fred had a flare up of his syphilis last Fall), and perhaps the best part was what you had to read between the lines (Albert lost three jobs again this year).

In contemporary times the truth is that we are brought up to date on the daily happenings of most people's lives. There are no surprises any more, at least not surprises that are more than twenty-four hours old. I never thought I would say this, but I am going to:

Most of us are over connected.

I am aware that I am as guilty of this as anyone, but I am a public figure and it comes with the territory. There is a certain expectation of information, but maybe it doesn't have to be satisfied all the time. Maybe the fact that the chronic boil you have on your left buttock has flared again and you have an appointment at 3pm to have it lanced is better communicated by Tweeting "Doctor Appointment" than by Tweeting "Boil Lancing."

It may well be a worthwhile goal to allow enough mystery to develop in your life to make the Christmas Card Letter necessary again. The peace that will accompany not feeling obligated to put everything out there might just surprise you.

Of course, that doesn't get me off the hook. None of my friends or family reads what I write anyway!