Most of the time those ads on the right hand side of my facebook wall are just an annoyance. I rarely pay attention to them, despite their glaring presence. I have even gotten used to the ones that use animation to draw your glance. Effective I would say, but manageable. One yesterday did catch my attention briefly. I had to read about the service they were offering. It was for a ” handwriting ” service. I do not recall the name of the company or person that was offering this, just the product itself. The jest of it was, you send them whatever it is you want ” handwritten ” and they will do that. If it is a letter or postcard they will even mail it for you. The ” pitch ” was that it would add the “personal touch” to your correspondence. Kinda like Hallmark says, when you care enough to send the very best. The implication was that by sending ” handwritten ” correspondence you would be showing how much you care and create that intimate feel. My reaction was immediate, say what ? Why would I pay someone to write a letter ? I mean,copy a letter I had already written,printed, or whatever. Hire a professional ” handwriter” ? A calligrapher I can understand, but just cursive handwriting. Has cursive writing become an occupation ? Technically cursive is a form of calligraphy, is that just too much effort ? Good grief. As far as it being a personal or intimate expression of your caring for the recipient I’m thinking you may have missed the point. I love my grandkids paintings and writings, would they be as cherished if the grandkids just hired someone to do them ? I mean, they could tell the person what to write or draw. Very personal.
 After the initial questioning and scratching of my head I determined that whoever thought that one up was pretty clever. I don’t know how much income they are making, but it is a clever ploy. The only expense being a good pen and paper. You do have to posses good cursive skills. I’m betting they have ” mature ” people that do that for them. You know, us folks that actually got graded on penmanship when in school. I know several people of my age that have excellent skills in that regard. I wonder how difficult it would be to find qualified individuals to write, should the business have a large demand.
 The other thing that came to my mind was, how personal could it be ? I certainly wouldn’t think of it as a personal expression if you paid someone else to do it. I would much rather you just printed it, by hand, if you felt like your cursive handwriting was illegible. My cursive is rather a haphazard affair but I have been working on it over the past few months or so. If I ever send any of you a card or letter you can be assured it was written with my own hand. A professional calligrapher writing a personal letter for a complete stranger for another complete stranger ? Maybe it is just me but it all seems weird. It borders on deceit in my book. If I included a picture it would be akin to photoshopping that picture. Yeah, that’s what I look like alright.
 I can only assume there must be a demand for this service on some level. After all somebody has to pay for that ad on facebook. I wonder what the cost of that is ? I just can’t imagine why anyone would pay for that service. What is next ? Send me a text and I will compose that letter or postcard for you as well ? Just give me an outline. Pay for personality or personally pay ? It is all very confusing to me. Of course I never thought I would pay for a glass of water either. Guess you never know.