Here's Looking at it Another Way

Christmas cards are a waste of time and money. Time and money that could be better spent on sugar cookies and watching It's a Wonderful Life. I don't send Christmas cards, usually. I have in the past. Honestly, I have nothing against them, but for some reason when I take a satirical approach to things, people laugh, and I like to incite laughter. So if you are a fan of sending cards, I applaud your dedication to the all-but-forgotten tradition involving handwriting and postage stamps. If you are a fan of those stationary-based form letters, you are so far from the mark of Christmas cards and greetings that you aren't even part of this discussion. I actually do think those letters are bogus. It would be like me printing my blog and mailing it to everyone I've met for the last 10 years. The reason for a blog is to say the things that many of those letter writers say, without forcing it into some one's mailbox. If it is in a blog you can read it or not; a blog will never give you a paper cut.
Back to the cards. My friend Christal wrote a little about cards on her blog. She speaks of the generic predictability of cards and her effort to overcome that this year. It made me think about cards and how I react to them. When I get a Christmas card I read the message and appreciate the feeling and effort behind it. And then I stand it up on a shelf. After a while, it has either blown over and fallen behind something, never to be seen again, or I take it down and throw in in a drawer. That's the best case scenario for a card. I think more often than not the card finds its way into the garbage. Not even the recycling, just the garbage. I wonder if the recyclable materials have their own form of religion in which they view recycling as heaven (eventual reincarnation) garbage as hell (slow, suffering, decomposition into oblivion).
Anyhow, cards are nice, but an e-card would be more efficient in my book. I could look at it, read it, put it on my "desktop." I could save it for a lot longer without losing it. That is, if I wanted to. Think of all of the "Forever" stamps you'd save, as well as preventing hand cramps. Just type it up and send it off. But then again, it is the thought that counts. Maybe there is more thought behind a physical card than an e-card. Maybe not.
I'm done with this thought, I'd rather think more about the recyclable item religion. It's impossible though, how would the recyclables communicate with each other. For the stuff that goes to a landfill there would be no way for them to learn about recycling. For the stuff that gets recycled, they might be able to tell of the glory of recycling, but they still wouldn't know about the landfill. The only way it could possibly work for them is if they understand human language, but that is simply preposterous.
Merry Christmas from Ajax!