Let's Go Analog

Let's Go Analog

The more things go digital, the more we all need, as Bruce Springsteen says, "just a little of that human touch."

I’m a big fan of The Imagination Spot, a shop in Goshen, Indiana that, in many ways, specializes in the human touch. The Imagination Spot  (108 E. Washington St. for north central Hoosiers) features a wall of greeting cards, sample books full of customizable invitations and scatterings of notecard collections. Each of these items is waiting for hands that are at the perfect temperature of 98.6 to write (not type) warm words to be sent to someone whose temperature is also right around 98.6.

Greeting Cards - The Imagination Spot

Let's unpack the idea of a handwritten note, shall we?


Intention: To delight the recipient, to delight yourself as you browse through The Imagination Spot’s selection, to make your mom or grandma (best friend, paramour, sixth grade teacher) shed a few tears of joy.

The process (easier than you think): Pick up your favorite writing utensil (I’m partial to gel pens); tap the writing utensil on your lower lip as you gaze out a window and ponder what words will best express your feelings; and begin. I often start with, “I don’t tell you this often enough…”

It’s o.k. to be a little more – dare I say it? – emotional in a handwritten message. There’s magic in your ink that is activated any time you get real with a personal communication. Any embarrassment you might otherwise feel if you were talking face-to-face with the recipient is absorbed by the magic and converted to nothing but pure sunshine that will warm hearts.

What don’t you tell someone often enough? How their sense of humor is what gets you through most days at work? That their shoulder is almost always what you need to cry on? That the time you spent together last weekend was a balm for your soul? That their picture is in the dictionary next to “Best Friend?” I’m actually getting a little choked up just thinking of the times I’ve received handwritten notecards with messages like this. That’s how powerful words can be when they travel from your heart to paper via the ink in a pen.

Short and (less) sweet is also 100% acceptable, of course. “Hey, we haven’t touched base in a while and I wanted you to know I was thinking about you,” packs just as much punch when it’s part of a notecard that shows up in a mailbox, shining like a beacon among advertising flyers and bills.

Join me and The Imagination Spot in starting an avalanche of analog outreach (aka handwritten snail mail). We are celebrating Thinking of You Week from September 23 - 29, 2019 along with the Greeting Card Association and many people across the country. The Imagination Spot will be having a Buy 3 Cards Get 1 Free special for the whole week in-store and online. You will also be able to come in the shop and get a Free mini card for writing a note to your friends and family. Limited quantities of mini cards available, one per customer.

Thinking of you week 2019

.............................................................................................................

 Tracie Davis

Meet our new freelance writer -

Tracie Davis is a local writer who has spent more than 50 years forcing happy snail mail upon friends, family, pen pals and strangers. 

 

 

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