When You Care Enough

As most of you know, I work for a production company. What most people don't know is that the production company is actually an arm of the marketing department for a highly recognized greeting card company. I mean, it's right there in the name of my company, but most people just think that we do our own thing and have nothing really to do with the greeting cards. Actually, it's the other way around. Our motivation for the movies is to sell greeting cards.

March is coming up, and in March, two of my oldest and very bestest friends celebrate their birthdays. Usually, when I'm out buying my sister's birthday card (in February), I pick up their cards, too. I'm a card person. I like sending them, and I like getting them. I'm one of those people who keeps count, too. How many Christmas cards did I get this year? About ten. How many did I send out? Around fifty. (You people are totally slacking.) Believe it or not, this hurts my feelings. I understand that people are busy. I understand that you got kids, mortgages, husbands, and jobs. I also know that since I'm single, you think I have a load of time on my hands to remember people. Maybe that's true. But I would also counter that I put my relationships with the people I love at the top of my list. How do I show my love? By taking ten minutes to stop by the card section of CVS and looking for a card that expresses the essence of our relationship, or finding something I think is apropos, or that you'll think is funny. In other words, I take ten minutes out of my day to actively think about you and how much you mean to me. It might not be as easy and quick and cheap as a posting a birthday wish to a Facebook wall, but I like the ritual of it. I like thinking about the people I love.

I have a confession to make. I have every birthday card that was ever given to me. I'm not lying. My mother started this weird obsession (it's nice to be the first born) when I was a toddler. By the time I was five, I started saving them myself. The cards seemed just as important as the gifts themselves. It seemed wrong to just throw them out. In fact, my mother used to write what the gift was on the inside of the flap in order to send out thank you notes post-birthday, and I'll tell you this, the gifts are long gone, but the cards are still around. When I was moving to, gosh, maybe my third address or second state, I don't know, I pulled out the box of cards and my mother nearly fell over in shock. "What are you doing with all those?" She asked. "I don't know. You started it," I answered somewhat defensively. "I did?" She replied. "Yes, how do you think I have all the Happy Birthday, 1-year old ones?" I shrugged. I couldn't explain why I thought it was important that I keep the cards or even why I continued to take the cards down every July and put them in the box with the others. (No, I'm not a hoarder. You do not have to call A&E.) "Maybe I should just get rid of them," I conceded. At which point, my mother and I sat down and looked at the cards. And I was right. They were all there. But something happened when we started looking at the cards. Memories started rushing back. The year we went roller skating. The year went to the beach. And then there were cards from people who were long gone.

"This one is from my mother," my mother said, tears forming in her eyes. "It's the year before she died. I almost forgot what her handwriting looked it." My maternal grandmother died in 1982.

There were cards from my great-grandmothers. The three of them who were around when I was born and stayed around for the first ten to twenty years of my life. There were cards from friends I don't see any more, and yearly cards from the friends who have been in my life for twenty-plus years. Like tokens of love. Paper greetings that say, I know you; I chose you.

I love greeting cards, so I guess its not too surprising that I ended up at the Crown. And I love movies, so I guess it's pretty apropos that I ended up at the Crown's production company. But what I love most is the people in my life. And I know that these relationships are important. In fact, the older I become, the more I realize that its my family and friends that really make this journey of life worthwhile. So, every time you receive a birthday card (or a Christmas card), know that I really am sending you my very best. I'm sending you my love.