Rughoo: Canada Post strike threatens fate of personal notes

Article content

When the strike by Canada Post, which started on Nov. 15, halted mail delivery in our country, most people I spoke to said they wouldn’t even notice. Not surprising, really. There has been a rapid decline of letter mail delivery in Canada over the past 20 years — from its peak of nearly 5.5 billion in 2006 to just 2.2 billion last year.

Article content

Article content

Email has made it more convenient to receive our bills and statements; direct deposit puts our cheques directly into our bank account; and texting, apps and social media have made it faster and easier to correspond and share things with family and friends.

Article content

While I haven’t missed receiving the numerous pieces of mail my financial institution used to send me or my monthly credit card bill in the mail in the past decade, what I do miss getting are hand-written greeting cards, postcards and notes.

People now text you a “Happy Birthday,” “Merry Christmas” and “Congratulations” rather than mailing cards. They share their vacation memories over social media instead of writing a postcard, and send you a “Thank You” email for a gift or thoughtful gesture rather than penning a note.

More immediate? Yes. Less expensive? Definitely (as it now costs $1.15 for a domestic stamp). As meaningful? Not to me.

There is something special about receiving something personalized and hand-written in the mail. I’m one of the few in my friend-group who still mails out holiday cards. Despite receiving only a handful myself in recent years and knowing that a booklet of stamps costs double the price I paid for my box of cards, I still love sending them.

I buy the newly issued festive stamps each year, write my message in green ink, and drop my cards in the mailbox the first week of December. I send them that early because I know it is called “snail mail” for a reason (it sometimes takes a full week for something to get delivered within my own city). I also know that people who don’t have a mailbox right outside their front door don’t check theirs regularly anymore.

Article content

People seem genuinely touched by receiving these cards. Because they, too, are getting so few of them as the years go on and technology usurps this cherished tradition.

In Canadian Neil Pasricha’s international best-selling book, The Book of Awesome, about the little things in life that make us happy, “Getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail” is listed as an awesome thing. He writes, “These little endangered parcels have something special about them,” and explains it’s so fantastic to receive them because they’re so rare.

Pasricha recommends treasuring these handwritten notes when you get them. And if you don’t get them, he points out that “there’s and easy way to start. Man, just send a couple.”

I have noticed that a few people to whom I’ve sent holiday cards have, for the very first time, started to send ones in return, creating that ripple effect Pasricha had hoped for.

So, while many people will go about their business and go on with their days without being affected by the current Canada Post strike, some of us sentimental luddites will struggle in this holiday season if it drags on. We will miss the joy of sending that glittery card with a heartfelt note that will brighten someone’s day, and know it will never be substituted by a generic greeting and Santa emoji sent via text.

Debra Rughoo is a Toronto-based freelance writer published in both local and national publications.

Article content