Lost Art Stationery

I spent four years working in a small stationery store in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Nearly every day someone would stop in and notes is such a lost art!" It irked me. Writing notes is not a lost art. We write every day! It's true that today's correspondence happens most often over email or social media, but we do write every day. The more we are inundated with emails, Facebook posts, tweets, and Instagram pics; the more we yearn for something else, something real. The more our mailboxes become filled with spam and bills, the more we miss the personal messages of yesterday. Remember when birthday messages came in the mail from a few, important, close friends? Today it seems nearly every one of the friends we've managed to collect since the first days of Facebook wants to wish us a happy birthday. It's difficult to know which messages are genuine and which are just because Facebook reminded them to celebrate with us, repeatedly. We want our friends to take a moment from their busy days, write a personal note, put it in an envelope, and place it in the mailbox. We are all busy, but being the recipient of this simple act is enough to change our day.