Tiffany Blue Ink

When was the last time you received a handwritten letter on proper stationery? Or a handwritten note on any type of paper for that matter? The look and feel of a handwritten note is incomparable and deeply personal. Compared to e-mail, e-vites, and everything else electronic, paper holds a soft spot in the hearts of a rare few that still enjoy kickin' it old skool with a pen. The Handwritten Letter Is A Dying Art. I’ve made no secret about my love affair with pen and paper, but yet everyone is always shocked and questions why a tech gadget whore like myself enjoys such a prehistoric form of communication. I’ll tell you why. Because it’s classic. It’s classy. It’s both formal and informal. Personal and sometimes professional. Thank you notes are a necessary part of life. They are used to acknowledge gifts, special favors and extended visits. You should send one after interviewing for a job and you should send one to thank someone for their business. Of course companies don’t do that anymore...or do they?

When I sort through my mail after work, anything hand addressed is opened first. Always has been. Always will be. Needless to say, those rare gems don’t appear very often nestled among the monthly bills, coupon fliers and junk catalogs. Yes, the handwritten letter really is a dying art, if not already extinct! I was nearly certain that the only two people left on the face of this earth that still wrote the occasional letter or thank you note was me and my 91-year-old Grandmother. If I have nothing else in common with a 91-year-old woman, at least I have that.

Then one day tucked between my Visa credit card statement and Men’s Health magazine was a small robin’s egg blue envelope, or "Tiffany blue" as the color is better known. Tiffany & Co had sent me A HANDWRITEN THANK YOU NOTE! What company in 2010 still does such a thing? It’s almost unheard of to receive a thank you note from any business these days. And if you do, it’s usually a canned formed computer generated letter. But this one was all original and written in hand! I could hardly believe it. I still can’t believe it. I was so impressed that someone (let alone a huge company like Tiffany & Co) would take the time and care enough to let their appreciation be known to lil' ol' me.

Really, that’s all any of us want in this world. To be recognized and appreciated if only for a brief moment. To know that we matter. To say "hey, I didn’t forget about you."

To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art. And Tiffany’s hasn’t stayed in business for two centuries without knowing how to properly treat people. They’ve perfected the art.