Today my HR manager and I received a thank you note. A real thank you note, a handwritten note, a note stamped and mailed through the US Postal Service. It was from a woman we interviewed yesterday. YESTERDAY. The note arrived today, which means she did her interview, went somewhere, wrote a note WITH HER HAND AND A PEN and mailed the damned thing all in the same day. Her mother should be proud!
I love mail, letters, 'zines, calligraphy, paper, and even postage stamps. I write thank you notes. AN EMAIL IS NOT THE SAME AS A THANK YOU NOTE. It's not real, it has no permanence, it has no energy. Call me crazy - I like what's tangible. As my calligraphy teachers say, real handwriting lives and breathes; Linnea says that it sings.
It is unbelievable how many people email me for my 'zine: "Please send me your ezine." They don't email their address. It's not an E 'zine, it's a REAL 'zine. Paper. And I need your f*cking mailing address!
I sent a handmade, funny birthday card to a friend in early April. And I wondered why she never mentioned it, because I thought it was a hilarious card. Well, she finally did mention it - she didn't check her mail till almost May! She never checks her mailbox, not even around her birthday. Oh my God!
Manners have gotten so lax that my friend's mother actually gives a self-addressed, stamped postcard to people when she gives them a gift. It's like her own form of delivery confirmation; since it's highly unlikely the recipients of her gift would write a thank you note of their own accord, she gives the postcard and hopes they'll drop it in the mail. Is this what we've come to?! Yes, it is.
Changing topics slightly - last weekend I fell in love - with a fountain pen. I tested around twenty pens at Atelier Gargoyle and fell in love with a chubby orange number; a
Conway Stewart pen. It wasn't the pen itself or the color - it never is. It was the nib (medium italic gold nib with an iridium tip), the ink flow (on the heavy side), the weight of the pen, and the way it made my handwriting just better. That's what a good pen will do; the right pen. I've seriously been pining for the thing since last Sunday. "I really can't buy it just now," I told my teacher. He set it aside for me anyway. I think he could tell I was in love.
19 October 2006
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2 comments:
Used to love to write thank-you notes...
then my handwriting turned to S%*T,
but sometimes it is okay... if I find
a really great pen. (Uniball Signo gel pen is a good one)
I need a pen that offers resistance..if they glide to easily my hand is crummy. A really good Fountain Pen is a joy forever.
I'd love to see your calligraphy
As far as I'm concerned e-mail is the only way to communicate at work. Thanks to e-mail I never have to talk to my boss face to face again. He's such a prick, and the e-mails he sends out confirms what a prick he is. In the 6 years I've worked there, he has only thanked me once or twice. The first time, I hung the prick's compliment on my refrigerator.
My own hand writing is illegible and if it was a person it would be incorrigible.
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