Last month I went to San Francisco to visit Shawn; on my flight home I had read a book I borrowed from him - "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I was totally engrossed in the book from page one. I read the entire book during the whole flight back to Miami. It is an incredibly touching book and brought tears to my eyes several times.
While nearly every chapter has its own meaning and impact; there is a particular one I wanted to share, "The Lost Art of Thank-You Notes." Here is an excerpt from this chapter:
"Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other. And despite my love of efficiency, I think that thank-you notes are best done the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper." -- Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture.I think it is a lost art indeed; and I think this makes it more powerful nowadays. In today's digital era, it is sometimes kind of surprising to see colorful envelopes with handwriting in our mailboxes. After reading that chapter, I immediately thought of my friend Christine, and how she has sent me 2 cards in the mail recently. I have many friends who aren't local anymore and receiving cards from them is always so nice! Whether its a Thank You, Happy Birthday, Congrats, etc. When the friend is no longer in the same city as you, it's more usual to receive snail-mail from them. But the reason why Mr. Pausch's statements reminded me of Christine's actions specifically is because she is a local friend! I talk to and see her often. She lives about 15-20 minutes from me. Yet she took the time to send me a sweet Thank-You card after I took care of her dog while she was on a vacation. Then another time I had given her a gift, a couple of days after giving it to her, I found a pretty little card in my mailbox. Despite the fact that I received hugs and emphatic verbal thank yous from Christine in person, she still took the time to hand-write a sweet card. And each time it brought a smile to my face. It just made it all the more appreciative. Add another reason to the list to why I heart that girl and why she's my friend :)
Randy Pausch has a point (among many!) in his book - do not underestimate the power of the written - literally written - word!
Awww! I'm glad to hear i brought a smile to your face : ) Sending thank you notes is something I didn't grow up with, but somehow picked up on my own later in life. Maybe it's because Anthro entices me so much with their beautiful cards -I just can't resist! I'll have to keep an eye out for that book - The Last Lecture. Thanks for the tip!
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