Spark In Darkness

I don’t like greetings cards of any kind. Not for any holiday or personal event or well, anything.

I think cards have their place – there a way of sending well wishing in a situation where you can’t do so yourselves. I certainly think that was the traditional usage (though don’t quote me on that)

Now we send cards to people we communicate with daily on the phone, in person, by the net… we even send them to people who live in the same house. Think about it, we send a LETTER to someone who lives in the same house as us to wish them Happy_ Whatever.

I think the sentiment is as well or better expressed with actual words, even an email or a phone call – or by a hot dirty make out session (hey, it always fills me full of seasonal good cheer).
Also, I think the greetings card industry is perhaps the biggest rip off merchants there has ever been in the history of the world ever (possible exaggeration).

Look at how much some of these cards cost! I mean, I haven’t bought one in a while, but some of them are over £3 each! For an A4 piece of card that folds! Ok there are cheaper, but these damn things are more over priced than professional footballers!

I shudder to think how much money is spent every year on these useless pieces of paper, to say nothing of the environmental cost of all this waste. I cringe I do.

Also I think they’re kind of meaningless – much like many of the holidays they mark. When we send a card on Valentines Day, are we saying “I love you”? or are we saying “society says I have to send this card, otherwise you have a right to be pissed at me”?

All the cutsey Hallmark style verses in the middle are, in general, not read methinks (at least, no-one I know reads them) and are pretty meaningless anyway, because no-one I know reads them before sending them. The only real effort I’ve seen going into a card is to find one that is sarcastic or funny.

So, yeah. I’m not a big fan. I’d much rather see the millions that go into cards every year go to just about anything more important.

Because of that, I don’t give cards and, in general, would much rather not receive them. I don’t blame people who like doing the whole card thing, but it’s not for me