Dear Krista-Lee and Martin

Several years ago, back when leaving your home wifi open for the neighbours to share, was de rigueur, I opened our front door one day to find a box of chocolates and a thank you note from a tenant who’d moved out of the building next door and wanted to thank us for the loan of the bandwidth for the years she’d been resident there. It was a thoughtful gesture, much-appreciated.

And, alas, rare in this day.

In recent years, originally to profit from having a letterpress that can print “thank you” cards, and then, encouraged onward by the genuine upswell of warmth that came every time I mailed one, I’ve become a regular sender of the real handwritten thank you. It’s something that I love doing, and the physicality of it renders digital communication soulless by comparison.

Since the rise of Facebook, Twitter et al, and the resultant decamping of web-based conversation into the walled gardens, it can feel eerily quiet around these here parts; I intuit that there are people reading, from time to time, but it’s become mostly a faith-based exercise.

Which is why it was such a pleasant thing to receive a thank you card in the mail–a lovely thank you card, handwritten, with the imagery explained–from readers Krista-Lee and Martin, away from the Island for 6 years and soon to return.

Thank you, Krista-Lee and Martin, for your kindness. I’d mail you back a thank-you-thank-you, but I worry you’re already loading the U-Haul. And about the recursion.

So I’ll buy you a coffee at the Farmers’ Market once you’re settled home.

Comments

B Woodacre's picture
B Woodacre on June 2, 2017 - 10:14 Permalink

A lovely gesture on both ends!

Krista-Lee's picture
Krista-Lee on June 3, 2017 - 23:42 Permalink

We are not yet loading the trailer, as this weekend we are trying to get connected with our inner minimalists and give away all of our cruft. We will, however, be in Charlottetown just in time for the fireworks show on Canada Day! I may try to imagine for a moment that it's the city's "Welcome Home" celebration for us and see how that feels.