Christmas Cards

I've had lots of people wish me a Merry Christmas over the internet, and have sent similar wishes to others. I plan to send a few Christmas e-cards, too.

But I still love getting the old-fashioned, hard copy cards. I'm glad to have received some of those, though not as many as I used to get. And I didn't send as many as I used to, either.

Hundreds of years ago it could take months for letters people sent to arrive. Sometimes they never did get to their destinations since they had to be carried by people who happened to be travelling to the destinations. If someone moved across th ocean to America from China or Europe, the people where they came from might never hear from them again.

In the early California people got mail by pony express, and then by train, but it was expensive to send. Getting a letter from someone back east was a big deal.

When the US Postal Service was developed, letters were much easier to send and receive, and Christmas cards became popular.

But it took several days or even a week for them to arrive.

Today we communicate over the internet and people might read our messages in a matter of seconds.

Maybe in the future we'll all have brain implants and communicate by thought waves. But then the govrnment could read our minds and... (Okay, my writerly imagination is at it again.)

I still love getting the old fashioned Christmas cards, but if you read this and I haven't sent one to you, please accept this as my way to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.