Friday, December 23, 2005

Consider this a Card

I really respect people who send out Christmas cards. Actually owning the addresses of all your friends, licking and stamping scores of holiday envelopes, and trudging to the post office with the final bundle are things that impress me, yes they do. I am not one of those people, though. It is yet another one of those projects that are muscled out of my life each year by things like poorly timed literary journal deadlines and a roomful of unwrapped and irregularly shaped Christmas gifts.

But I think a Christmas card can tell you a lot about the people who send it out. Do they send you a photo from the past year of them doing something meaningful? (Another option: doing something sporty and windblown) Do they settle upon the traditional snow-covered valley scene or perhaps something in the manger family? Or, do they go with this year's special, a card from the Baby Explosion movement. (This is a very cute option, even when, as in the case of two of our friends, this means a picture of their dog.)

Since the arrival of so many cards in my little mailbox over the last few weeks engenders feelings of, you guessed it, Christmas guilt, I feel the need to take the unabashedly half-assed way out and send a Christmas e-card to y'all right now. After all, the mini outpouring of support and resistance at the news of my blog's ending was touching and fills me with something not unlike the Christmas spirit. (It also had the side benefit of revealing my most loyal blog readers as well as those who have mysteriously fallen off the face of the earth yes that means you Mark Huntsman.) So, this is what I would have said, had I gotten my act together and sent out the 60-odd Christmas cards necessary to get the job done:

Greeting and Merry Christmas! We hope everyone is doing great. James and I had a great 2005, a year that saw us take on new jobs, visit Prague, and have lots of good times with...

Yeah, okay, I see why this isn't working. Any Christmas card about my year that would be suitable reading material for all sixty people on the list, including grandparent-types and former bosses is, let's face it, just not fun to read. Upon further reflection, I stand by my original decision. If you read this blog, you already know what I did this year and are probably sick of hearing about how I'm "working on my dissertation" and "eating organic food." I've just realized that my blog is my (year-long) Christmas card, and, viewed that way, is actually much more extensive than most people's. So, less guilt for me. I suppose if I didn't cancel my blog I wouldn't have to do Christmas cards next year, either.

At any rate, I did enjoy receiving Christmas cards from all of you who sent them, I really did, and please don't strike me from your list next year in anger. I must sign off now, as I am headed to Fenway Park to pick up a few last minute Christmas gifts (I just love saying "I am headed to Fenway Park." When I eventually leave Boston, that will be one of the things I miss saying the most.) Since this will be my last post before Sunday, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday and a most cheerful Christmas morning, itchy reindeer sweaters and all.

4 Comments:

At 6:08 PM, Blogger huntsmanic said...

i didn't accidentally fall off the mysterious face of disappearing anywhere. but i did an equivalent: i began dating a girl and then, oops, really kind of fell for her. there's more to my interneterly absence than that, of course, but that was the trigger.



i am going to be seriously let down if, when i start grad school in 2 months and have to be up late writing all the time, your blog has been fossilized. ..not disappointed in you, or anything -- i'm just talking about me. needing you. there, i said it.

 
At 9:25 PM, Blogger scs said...

I had a feeling there was a skirt involved. (am trying out 1920's hard-boiled detective fiction lingo) Well, I'm glad you came up for air long enough to register your loyalty to the blog. Wouldn't be the same without your support, obviously.

 
At 8:13 PM, Blogger Casson said...

I don't want to comment on the Christmas card thing. I don't want your blog to end. What will it take? Should there be a petition? Money? An assistant? The threat of lost friends? Getting stricken from the Christmas card list? Or will you pertinaciously disappear from the blog world like the last Amigo to ride into the sunset/sunrise/horizon/off-camera? You should have announced the departure in your last blog, now I can't deal with the other stuff.

 
At 3:49 PM, Blogger scs said...

I have to admit I underestimated the groundswell of resistance to the End of the Blog. I am touched.

 

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