Do you write what you mean or what you are thinking?

Personalizing your greeting card can be fraught with social pitfalls. It’s often struck me that when sending greeting cards and note cards that we’re mindful of saying the ‘right thing’ – either in the printed  greeting itself – or in our personalized message.  Google search terms demonstrate that the majority of us look for advice on how to say what we want according to ‘procedure’, ‘etiquette’ or just plain old-fashioned common sense. 

 
Perhaps we don’t trust our instincts. Information is so easy to come by these days so why think of it yourself – when you can copy and paste someone else’s words?  Usually they’ll be messages, verses or sayings culled from greeting card sites that are financially driven to offer the right type of advice.

How refreshing then, when trawling around myself online, to come across a site with a link to ‘what I was thinking v what I wrote’. 
Few if us have the courage to be really honest in our greetings to one another.  We may say one thing but really mean another.  We may think easily of what to write yet struggle for ages on how to re-word that into something that won’t offend, startle, or detract from the occasion.

If that hits a nerve, just take a look at just one or two of the examples that I’ve taken from Greetings Direct.

Thank You Card
What I Was Thinking:
"Thanks a bunch for making me choke down your atrocious cooking, spend a sleepless night with my old friend heartburn, and go through the next day like the walking dead."
What I Wrote:
"Many thanks for including me at your stimulating dinner party! Your incredible hospitality will be long-remembered."

Get Well Soon Card
What I Was Thinking:
"Wow, we flew through that meeting and accomplished so much! And all because that monkey-wrench-throwing windbag is sick at home."
What I Wrote:
"Get Well soon and let us know when you’re on your feet again! We are clearly feeling the effects of your absence at the office!

Happy Birthday Card
What I Was Thinking:
"I could be standing here in my birthday suit and no one would remember or acknowledge my birthday."
What I Wrote:
"Happy Birthday to a great gal from all of us! May all your birthday wishes come true  
It reminded me how we so often hide our true feelings about what we’re thinking and instead hide it all behind a sometimes false ‘niceness’ – just because that is more socially acceptable and won’t dump us in it!

Greetings Direct's comments help us to  laugh at ourselves a little, and accept that yes, the majority of us have, at some point, written something other than what we really mean. 

It just goes to show that the act of giving a greeting card is loaded in social niceties, keeping face, creating a good impression – or whatever you want to call it. So next time you want to personalize your greeting card spare a little thought for what you really want to say, for once it's written - it's out there!.

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Written by Geraldine Jozefiak
Craft Expert and Demonstrator

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