...and those jingle bells are fast approaching

There are fourteen tabs along the bottom of the holiday card Excel spreadsheet, one for each year since 1999 when the then rather simple process of writing a few festive greetings to friends and business associates became a bit more formalized. I always sent out a few cards to family and friends in the years prior to that…but when going to work for my local union in the late nineties, it seemed like a good idea to keep track of the names and addresses in a more organized way. If you click the 1999 tab you can plainly see the 16 business-related folks (didn’t list the family cards in the early years) that received cards that first more organized year, and all but one of the original sixteen recipients are still on the list today.

The spreadsheet is really pretty systematized for a generally scatter-brained person like me, and includes columns for names, addresses, date written and the date the cards are eventually mailed. There are 285 cards on the 2012 tab (there were 283 in 2011…which means only 2 were added in 2012…I’ve gotta get out more) so I started the process of writing the first one this year on October 2nd (last year it was October 14th). Basically, I have to average roughly 5 cards each business day to get them all done by the preferred early December mailing date. I come into the office each weekday about 6:30am, click on the Butch Thompson Trio holiday station on Pandora and start writing…usually covering the entire card with a hand-written note. You see, that’s the deal…to me a genuine old-school holiday card has to contain at least some old fashioned hand-written writing. For the love of god, I’ve never figured out why folks send cards containing only an antiseptic pre-written message…often failing to even sign their name. However as we rapidly plunge into a prosaic (learned that word this week looking for an antonym for romantic) headphone-wearing culture that increasingly proposes marriage via mobile device, it’s obvious that’s no longer the prevailing sentiment.

The reason the list is so long is that you can engage in some pretty sketchy behavior without getting removed. You can routinely ridicule my work, insult my politics, fail to stay in touch, gleefully point out my poor grammar, correct my use of the word “literally” in this blog, make fun of my poor spelling, vote Republican, be a bully, drive cars made by children in Korea, consistently dominate every conversation, possess an ego bigger than Kansas and even generally act like a jackass and still receive a card.  I’ve got all kinds in there, including folks that I haven’t talked to or heard from in over ten years and at least a couple that don’t care for me at all.

 

For the most part though the cool thing is the list is made up of people I largely admire and adore…who put up with all my bad behavior (including many of the sins listed above) throughout the year while still managing to give me more out of a relationship than I ever provide or ever will give back in return. It’s a good list…and to be honest, other than changing your address  without telling me (there’s even a workaround for that), I really can’t think of one thing you can do to stop receiving cards.   Well…then again…I guess there is one way.

Early each October when I turn my attention to the card writing ritual, I always open the Excel program and create a tab for the current year. When I do, I scroll through the list and reminisce fondly about (or cuss at) each person. Eventually though I happen upon the name of someone that’s passed away…and when that occurs, I highlight the name in yellow and make the appropriate note. Usually, the impact of having to mark these passings causes me to reflect a bit, and count up the number of those that are gone since the process began. Sometimes I go back to see how long a person has been gone…and it is figuratively (actually…I think this is where you can actually use literally) shocking to me to see how long it’s often been. Many times I’m thinking the person passed just a year or two ago…but usually I am figuratively blown away (I think I’m getting this literally/figuratively thing down) when I realize it’s often been five or more years.

This year I had to highlight the names of good close friends and true mentors. When I started writing their respective cards at this time last year, there was zero indication that they wouldn’t be around this season. As far as I and most others knew they were perfectly healthy…and now, they are no longer here. There are seven highlighted rows on the 2012 spreadsheet, and all of the folks made a profound impact on my life and are people that I thought would be here forever.

I don’t want to highlight any more names in yellow in 2013, so please slow down long enough to enjoy life and the approaching holiday season. Life is far more fragile than so many of us realize, and if you think work is the most important thing in the world than you really do need to go for a run, or pour a glass of red wine, or watch a sunrise, or walk a dog, or hug a child or do whatever meaningful thing floats your boat.  As a matter of fact, it’s going to be a wonderful pre-election Fall weekend, so if you’re doing a little understandable electoral work, you might want to also make the time to do at least some of those other important things too. I’m sending out 285 union made holiday cards this year, and I want to order and use at least that many in 2013 so take care of yourself and stick around.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to listen to a little music.

 

Through many dangers, toils and snares...