New Haven Independent

But I was wrong. Very wrong.

Even though the number of cards has decreased, greeting card behemoth Hallmark reports that Americans still send over 1.9 billion greeting cards annually. That works out to a sizable $7.5 billion-a-year business, according to the Greeting Card Association.

Now I am sure there is someone who will immediately suggest that sending cards is bad for the environment or a bad personal financial choice.

“Think of the rain forests that will be destroyed making those silly cards,” they will cry. Or they will suggest something about “putting the money to better use” doing something else.

The way I see it ,there are two types of greeting cards: corporate cards, the ones I get from my plumber and electrician with the mechanical signature; and the ones I get from friends, family and colleagues. If I never get another greeting card with a mechanical signature it will be too soon. For all the warmth and personality they convey they might as well be addressed to “occupant.”

The biggest problem for greeting cards is this “I-am-always-connected-to-everyone-else-via-Twitter-Facebook-and-every-other-imaginable-way” world. A card used to be a way in which we communicated with a long lost or distant friends about how are life was going, what was new and what changed.

Now we broadcast the minutiae of our lives daily to our diaspora on Facebook and Twitter. To many, greeting cards don’t seem important, since many feel almost religiously bound to describe every waking moment, every thought, every action that occurs in their life no matter how trivial and inconsequential. So much for personal editing, never mind the larger “Who cares?”

But in this increasingly so-called “connected” universe it is readily apparent just how “unconnected” we all are. In its own unique way a greeting card is the chance for both the sender and the receiver to connect.

You get only one chance to write down your thoughts on a greeting card. There is no “delete” button. Do they even still make “white out”?

You actually have to think about what you are going to say, ponder your choice of words. And you have to write it by hand. It’s personal.

And I don’t know about you, but I save some of the cards I get. They remind me of the history I have with the people who sent them.

Maybe that’s the best reason of all.