Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary, in GoLocal24.com

The (physical) Christmas  card tradition can sometimes be a bit weird. You get cards from people you haven’t actually seen in many years. Sometimes they’re accompanied by narratives presenting what’s been happening with relatives and close friends of the senders – often as folded inserts  in the card envelopes with listings of achievements – graduations, fancy new jobs, prizes – and less so, sad news, especially of deaths and illness.  Sometimes they’re weirdly intimate considering the length of time since you’ve seen or talked with the writers.

You might never again get a phone call or a visit from some of these senders. The next word you might get about them might be their obituaries.

My approach has always been to reply, in  ink on paper, with a card to anyone who has taken the time to send one, no matter how long ago it was that I saw the senders. That’s not just because it’s courteous but because you never know what you might learn by maintaining these relationships, however tenuous they may seem. It’s a kind of yearly discipline, and you can look at the cards over the years as a kind of social history.

Some may complain about your handwriting (my arthritic hands too often produce a scrawl), but most people like the proof of personality and physicality, however flawed.

Block-sending Christmas cards by email can be a little chilly and sterile. But then, many people are fired by email and text these days. No wonder anomie is advancing.