Condolences. We would like to express our condolences but how? We make do with Zoom or Facetime but both leave something to be desired. So we send cards and write notes. The sympathy card section in many a store is all but barren. The demand is overwhelming supply. This old-fashioned thing, once a standard gesture of sorrow, is filling our need to bridge emotional distance.
So, too, are thank you notes. Frontline workers from the supermarket to the ICU are receiving messages of appreciation, many from strangers. Sending these expressions of gratitude or heartache takes a bit of extra time, but it makes it all more real and it's something we can hold on to.