I love the newsletters that come in the mail this time of year and I\u00a0don’t understand how they ever got to be the butt of sitcom jokes. I was worried that\u00a0email and websites might slow\u00a0the flow of information that comes inside Christmas mailers once a year, but so far so good.\u00a0 They’re arriving on schedule and to me they’re\u00a0irreplaceable.<\/p>\n
This year\u00a0 I\u00a0received a letter from a family I used to babysit for.\u00a0 The parents of the kids I tended\u00a0are now great-grandparents\u00a0and they took\u00a0their entire family – thirty something of them in all – on a cruise to Europe and then toured several countries.\u00a0 This letter is worth keeping just for the group photos of all those relatives\u00a0in one family who work together in the family business all year and still have a great time traveling together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have two letters with stories of construction projects.\u00a0 One is from a Dad who spent months at his daughter’s house fixing it up so she can sell it because a divorce is on the way.\u00a0 One is from a couple whose home was severely damaged in a storm and they’re working\u00a0to bring it back to life.<\/p>\n
One letter this year devotes more than half of the page to a photo and stories about a beloved pet who passed away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is always at least one very glamorous letter.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s a grown child of old friends who undertakes an unusual line of work and brings all of us along, in the space of the one-page missive, into a world we wouldn’t have otherwise visited.<\/p>\n
Then there’s a\u00a0former boyfriend who’s kept his looks and his ambition and his intellect and his compassion intact and he’s made a glorious\u00a0life, quite a photogenic life, with a beautiful wife and children and grandchildren.\u00a0 Their\u00a0newsletter\u00a0includes a photo of him and\u00a0his wife on a yacht.\u00a0 Their letter also contains pictures of little ones romping around the family home in New England.\u00a0 I am most impressed with how very important those little ones are in the text written by\u00a0the glamorous couple.<\/p>\n
There are letters from several people I’ve worked with in broadcasting,\u00a0and the\u00a0news isn’t generally good this year, since broadcasting is re-inventing itself and cutting back jobs.\u00a0\u00a0Here’s a letter, though, listing all the things one friend plans to do now that he no longer needs to show up\u00a0and talk into a microphone every day.<\/p>\n
It’s still a few days before Christmas and other letters will arrive, I’m sure.\u00a0 There does seem to be a certain increase in sad news this year, and it might seem odd, at first glance, to choose to tell these stories inside a holiday greeting.<\/p>\n
I’m grateful for each and every letter and every story and every insight into how people are handling the ups and downs in their lives.\u00a0\u00a0I love these once a year outpourings\u00a0because\u00a0I’m fond of letters in general – the kind we can hold in our hands – and\u00a0getting a letter\u00a0once a year is better than getting\u00a0none at all.<\/p>\n