How to say 'thank you'

We live in a world where most of us say 'thank you' using an email with a single word: 'thanks'. I'm as guilty of this as the next guy. Yesterday I was reminded of the kind of world that we could live in.

When I got back to my office after a day's worth of meetings in different places, I found a package on my desk. It was postmarked from London, Ontario, Canada. I looked at the name - it didn't jump out at me. It was a fairly big, and moderately heavy package. I first thought hmmm ... I'm not the kind of guy that a Unabomber-esque person would want to take out, right?

A quick search via Google jogged my memory. The sender was Edward Ocampo-Gooding, one of the organizers of this year's CUSEC conference. I had met him at RubyConf, and he had sent me a mail out of the blue a few months ago asking for an introduction to Jon Udell. It took me maybe 30 seconds to fire off the email that introduced them to each other and I promptly forgot about it.

Once I had confidence that the package wouldn't blow up when I opened it, I looked inside. I found a small gift and a hand-written letter:

There was a link in the letter. When I clicked on the link, this is what I saw:

This was a really thoughtful and touching way to say thank-you. It says a lot about the character of this young man, and a reminder to the rest of us about how to treat others who help you out. I guess the way I'm thanking him is through this blog post :)

BTW, I heard awesome things about the CUSEC conference this year from folks that I know personally: Jeff Atwood, Zed Shaw, and Jon all wrote glowingly of their experiences.

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Just the other day I was watching Randy Pausch's 'Other Lecture' on Time Management. Randy talks about the stack of blank thank-you cards that he keeps on his desk. He makes a point to hand-write thank-you notes to people who have helped him out. Not quite what Ed did for me, but an important thing to do nonetheless.

Comments

[Charles]

Good Karma

[Skrud]

Ed is by far one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and also one of the best friends I've ever had.

[mb]

The gift didn't get dented, did it? I was worried it would be dented. P.S. if you need to the official Gooding Pancake recipe... just send Edward an email, and he'll hook you up.

[John Lam]

@mb: It arrived safe & sound, thanks!

Recipe sounds yummy ...