30 days in November 29...

Today is:

Electronic Greetings Day

I’ve been skipping most of the paper cards for years. In fact I wouldn’t bother if it weren’t expected, all they do is clutter up the place and gather dust. Besides my mother in law has this annoying habit of reading and counting them all and then saying things like: 'I see that you didn't get a card from cousin Gertrude this year, I did', or 'only thirty-seven cards this year, last year you had thirty-nine'.

So fluffing what, and just what have our card numbers got to do with her anyway? But then she picks up my personal mail if it is lying about and reads that too like some sort of cold war Stasi agent. What she thinks gives her the right to do this is inexplicable, but she does it anyway.

Fortunately she doesn’t use email or texts, so her future in surveillance (spying) is limited, as at some point I’m sure that I will turn away from paper altogether. Just think of the multi-level advantages if everyone just stopped sending cards to each other (some of whom are people I hardly ever see and sometimes don’t even really know or like). We’d be saving some trees, saving some money, saving the postman’s poor old legs, saving my mother in law from knowing too much (which can be dangerous even if you are Stasi) and saving ourselves a lot of time writing and addressing all those endless bloody cards to people who don't really care.

Sorry if I'm sounding like a Smith's greatest hits CD, but honestly what difference does it make?

And of course on the plus side electronic greetings can be so much more than a scribbled signature and a meaningless, almost illegible bon mot. Electronic greetings are multi dimensional and can be creative with text, photos, videos and music. Just think of how lovely it would be to receive a greeting of fluffy kittens singing silent night or to send a video of your dog destroying the Christmas tree and eating all the presents.

Best of all, those lovely electronic reminders means nobody need ever be forgotten. Not even my mother in law... Mores the pity.