Bond

What I am about to write may seem old fashioned, maybe even blasphemous, but I still like to get a handwritten note. It feels so much more sincere and thoughtful that an email, text, Facebook Message, or even Snapchat. I am afraid that the next generation might not even have physical mailboxes; I fear for the job of my friendly USPS mail person Luisa, except Amazon seems to keep her plenty busy! I must acknowledge the expense (time, resources, money) of writing a note. This simple gesture requires stationary (who really has?), finding a good pen, writing (I have no stamina and my writing is atrocious), locating a stamp (never around), dropping in a mailbox (where is one again?), and then waiting for the USPS to do its work. I can only imagine the economic waste of this card traveling only a few blocks! Maybe these extraordinary steps are the reason I appreciate the effort of a card.

Well, there is a new, and of course easier, way to send "handwritten" notes and it's called Bond. Fellow Louper Suzanne H. introduced it to me, and I genuinely appreciate this application of technology. All you need to do is pick out a card, write a note, pay and then a handwritten note in your handwriting (or you can choose a better penmanship) is sent to the recipient, taking about a week to receive. Now, this is not about picking the handwritten font that imitates someone's handwriting on the font scroll down menu, but rather this is robotic technology that makes your sentiments come to life with the look of a Montblanc pen and time spent. The company built a writing machine with robotic arms that can hold a pen, a paintbrush or a marker that factors in the human variance present in handwriting. Bond seals each envelope with wax (the old fashioned way), adds a stamp and mails it; boom ... that easy! Bond's team of roboticists, software engineers, and typographers figured out how to write letters like humans (or better) so you don't have to ... genius! This takes much of the effort out of writing a note without taking away the impact of receiving one. Again, we are getting to the two percent (a short cut this time) by discerning the precious, meaningful and bonding moments.