Today, I had to mail a letter. As in a LETTER. Not a bill, an invoice or a document that keeps me from…no, not that just a little card with a sentiment of care inside.

My daughter asked why we were walking; we couldn’t walk to the post office it was too far away.  “Why don’t we just put it out on the front porch?”

So, I told her we were going to take it to the mailbox in town and she said “a mailbox, what is that?”

Oh, my goodness what are we teaching these kids? Haven’t we ever played Eye Spy and thought of a mailbox? Haven’t they at least seen When Harry Met Sally and known the full on anguish of someone wanting something more than they could ever know…?

I know it may sound stupid, but kids need to know everything that we can teach them.  We cannot assume that school is doing everything for them. They won’t know what we don’t talk about.  Things that might seem blatantly obvious to us for growing up in a different age; without technology, or maybe just without email, or maybe just without the Internet; or going back farther,  without cable…egads.

Today, if you want to get someone’s attention, in a good and rare kind of special way, you can mail a letter.  Of course, when someone wants to get even more attention, they mail an envelope with a formal letter and a green label, and it isn’t always a good thing…but let’s focus on the fun. Let’s focus on the birthday card with a personal greeting, maybe with a little bit of glitter dust to really annoy mom, or better yet, a thank you note with pictures from the party!  Anyone can take a few minutes from their tech savvy, beeping – gotta pay attention to me now – day to create a hand written, good old fashioned, smiling faces near the signature, letter.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl

PS Oh, and she now knows that there is indeed, a mail box in town. Just in case anyone else needed to know where it was, I included a handy picture.