Oct.
8/09

The World Needs More Postcards

: Image via Wikipedia

Quick: When’s the last time you sent a postcard to friends and family back home when you were traveling?

I’ll take a stab and guess that for some of you, it’s been awhile. Years, even.

Just as some pundits predict the soon-extinction of books, there are others who can’t believe that people still send postcards back home to friends and family when they travel. Why would they, when they can keep in constant contact through email, texts, Tweets, Facebook updates, the list goes on.

To me, this is the best reason for even the most postcard-phobic to pick up a few postcards — the cheesier, the better — scrawl a few banalities across the back like Wish You Were Here!!! and then pop them in the mail.

I’d almost bet that when you return home, the recipient will mention it to you. How many times do you get a response when you send an electronic missive from the road?

Probably never.

After all, receiving a link to a video uploaded just moments before is old-hat. In fact, today it happens all the time. To really stand out, you have to do things the old-fashioned way. And that takes a little extra work and foresight.

I have a friend who’s never been on a plane in her almost-50 years. “Can we drive there?” she asked me the last time I invited her to go on a trip to Argentina with me.

Uh, well, YEAH, but…

We keep threatening to ply her with Valium and booze and drag her on the plane before she realizes what hit her. But she says she is content to stay put as long as I send her a postcard whenever I travel. My particular travel bugaboo is that I can never find a stamp on the road and I never remember to bring extras with me. And of course, when I travel overseas, the whole issue is moot.

So I save the postcards and send them when I get home. Which is nice, but shows that I took the lazy way out. And she never hesitates to tell me.

The next time I get on a plane, I’ve promised her to send a postcard before I get on the return flight home. I’ve already tucked a few extra stamps in my wallet so there will be no excuses.

How about you? On your next trip, forget the Facebook updates and the Tweets. Send a few postcards. You’ll see it’s worth the extra effort.