The Trouble with 1-800-FLOWERS

A gifted advertising group came up with a great pitch to increase FTD's sales with the 1-800-FLOWERS. That way a guy did not even have to stop in to a flower shop, be bothered with selecting an arrangement, it was delivered for him, all on the credit card and his only question was "IT COST HOW MUCH ?!?!
I bear no ill will against a good company and a successfull campaign. I only mourn the loss of genuine human touch. All some guy now had to do was dial the number. Dial the number, back before cell phones, before touch tone, the phones had a wheel on the face that you turned to select the num...never mind.
It created a detached effortless way to say, "Here, I'm busy, so I let someone else do it, I just paid for it". How romantic. Hopefully it went a little deeper than that but much of our 20th century American society's mentality tracks on that same wavelength. Rather than get personal we would rather donate cash to a corporate entity that will handle the dirty work to leave us free to pursue our self interests with a relatively clear conscience. Perish the thought of actually touching a "needy" person ourselves, it might interrupt our schedule, or make images in our memory that don't comfortably go back on the tidy shelf.
In the books of Moses, the was a festival of booths, or "sukkot". It was to be a reminder that they were once wanderers, living in shelters, a time to be humble and have kind thoughts toward those who must still live in shelters.
Who of us can say that in a year or two from now, we might not be living on the kindness of friends and strangers. MAY THEY BE AS KIND TO YOU, AS YOU WERE TO OTHERS.