Holiday Spirit

Today in my First Year Seminar my classmates and i wrote in Christmas cards to send to soldiers on active duty and/or wounded. It was a pretty simple and quick process of writing a short "thank you, have a happy holiday" sort of message in a Christmas card but it felt much bigger. although letter have been around for a very long time and were one of the first types of communication soldiers could have with their family, they are still used today. They might not be as effective for communicating with loved ones as newer technology but I think a combination of both is the best route, because while its nice to see your loved ones face in real time and be able to communicate face to face when they're so far away, its also nice to have a tangible thing you can hold on to sent by a loved one. Even though the soldiers who will receive our letter don't know us and probably never will I know from my cousins that just receiving mail puts a smile on their faces. Over thanksgiving I talked to my cousins about communication and what they thought about it while they were away. My cousin Dan said that "not getting a letter on mail day was the worst thing about being away. Any kind of mail was better than none at all." With that in mind, sending letters to the soldiers currently serving felt really good and that's why when I saw this commercial on television the other day I knew I had to incorporate it into my blog. This commercial is a Hallmark advertizement introducing their new recordable book. In the commercial a soldier overseas receives a book that contains his sons voice reading the book to him. I felt this was a really touching example of how much communicating with family means to soldiers. This new book is another example of the way technology is advancing the tools of communication between families and their service member.