Season's Greetings from Lost Friends & Relatives

[Moondance]

Get any unexpected holiday cards this year, or season's greetings via email or text, from old friends or former colleagues or anyone else you haven't heard from in a while? Planning to reply?

 

My out-of-the-blue Christmas card was from the college girlfriend of a childhood friend. I haven't had any contact with either of them for years, and was surprised to hear that she is "looking forward to being back in touch in the new year." At the risk of sounding Scrooge-like, hearing about her new house, her new housemate and her cat (a picture of the cat was included) did not tickle my interest in responding.

 

I also heard from my favorite high school teacher with whom I've been in occasional contact through the years. But a friend had mentioned recently that our former teacher's recent posts to Facebook expressed as much enthusiasm for Donald Trump as he had once shared with us for Emerson and Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville. This did not make me want to write back.

 

On the other hand, I was glad to get cards from two rarely seen, almost-never-heard-from cousins in a vast, scattered galaxy of first cousins, and to receive a thoughtful note about my mother (who passed away this year) from a longtime friend of hers who said, "Since I cannot send a card to your mother this year, I am writing this one about her." It was very sweet, and much appreciated.

[+ Topseed]

Holiday cards are like text messages: it's not a tennis match. No obligation to respond.

[+ nycman]

When I've "lost touch" with someone....there's usually a reason.

 

I don't see sappy Christmas cards as a reason to try and resuscitate a dead relationship.

 

Count me in the "Scrooge Column"....grin