"Say what?"

This last weekend I was an exhibitor at the 2006 Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce Showcase. This time the focus of our product offering took a backseat to a desire to put our technical resources to work to share a message of gratitude.

Some of you may know that Wichita Falls is closely associated with and economically enriched by the presence of Sheppard Air Force Base, and one of the keep-in-touch systems that JUMProductions offers seemed like an ideal way for the people visiting the Showcase to send a personal "thank you" to service personnel in the field right from the convention center floor. So, with the help of a business colleague and of a dedicated gentleman by the name of Marty Horn at http://www.anysoldier.com, we were able to set up our booth to send individual greeting cards personally written by the people of Wichita Falls to service personnel in harm's way.

It was seriously moving.

One of the things that I noticed is that in spite of the fact that we weren't charging attendees anything to send a card, we still had a little trouble getting people to slow down and write a message. I finally asked a few people why the hesitation. I got the same answer repeatedly: "I just don't know what to say."

It seems that in this multiple choice world a lot of us have grown up in, we're uncomfortable with the essay portion. Maybe we're just not teaching letter writing anymore - it's been a long time since elementary school for me - and there's just no trained facility to put a few sentences together. Or maybe the capacity for heartfelt expression is something we protect ourselves from these days.

I just read an article by John Carlton today exploring the same topic (see his excellent blog at http://www.john-carlton.com/?p=143).

"Most of us wait until crisis hits to say "I love you"”. For those seemingly long periods when everything's fine, we neglect to connect with those sometimes-embarrassing emotions. We let the important stuff slide... because we can always catch up later.

"Or so we like to believe."

So, I'd just like to remind you that if you're taking the time to read this you perhaps ought to take a moment longer at the end of these 500 or so words and either drop a card or letter to someone who means something to you or pick up the phone for no reason but to tell them, "I thought about you."

It doesn't have to be Shakespeare, but it can't come from anyone other than us - all of us - one at a time.

One woman who visited the booth made a special impression on me. She studied over the message that she was writing for a very long time. She typed with quiet concentration, and when she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. I don't know what she wrote or to whom she wrote it. I have no idea what personal loss or patriotic impulse moved her. I do know that for her and for the service man or woman who will receive her message, life will be a little bit different for her effort.

You get back from the world what you send out into it. Send the message just to send the message. Change the world one word at a time.