Here is a re-run of a post I did last year on the “night before Christmas.” Wait until the “all through the house, not a creature is stirring not even a mouse” and then sneak off and do this thing. Somebody you love certainly would like their pick of the BookNotes post, or anything else in print. Here is what I wrote a year ago. You can skip the download the interview with e part, which perhaps was a bit much. Let us know what you think.
A Very Last Minute Gift Idea: Make Your Own Hearts & Minds Gift Card
You
are not alone, brothers and sisters, you who are trolling the shops and
sighing deeply, with no sugarplums dancing anywhere near your befuddled
head. We feel your pain.
And, yes—somebody say
Hallelujah!—we’ve got good news: a great, easy gift idea! This is it,
a great gift idea you can get, right here, right now, at home, easily.
It would be good for almost anybody, young or old. And it is way cool.
All
you have to do is give us your credit card info, tell us how much you
want to spend, and tell us who it is for. We’ll make a record of it
here (and will promptly confirm it with you by sending a number, so they
know it isn’t you just pretending to give them a gift, what with your
crayony scrawl on your kid’s construction paper and all.) (Okay, I take
that back: maybe you are a gifted scrap-booker and can make a truly
stunning and very textured little thing or an art major and you’ve
already got the vision for some dashing water-color wash, with the
dollar amount in pen and ink. Have at it.) No matter how you make it,
we’ll send a little number, just to make it official, which you can put
on the card real tiny on the back.
Give ’em a gift that they might love. Or should,
at least. And here is what we’d suggest, to help spread the word about
our passionate little business to serve you with (usually) no-nonsense,
culturally-relevant, thoughtfully enjoyable, Christian books and
music:
You can even DOWNLOAD this interview with me talking about our bookstore and put it on a disc to listen to, in case they need to know a bit about us.
Let
your friend or loved one hear how we see our calling to help folks make
sense of their lives by doing this bookstore thing, why we promote
reading widely, how we are eager to help customers connect the dots of
their lives, providing books and music that are sometimes a bit hard to
find or off the beaten path. This fast-paced, hour-long interview was
professionally broadcast and recorded on VoiceAmerica talk radio, with
me being interviewed by a dear friend, life coach Jory Fischer, for her
show “Heart & Soul with Jory Fischer.” Let them listen to the
interview and understand our take on the joys of reading and discerning a
sense of purpose and calling, and why perhaps Hearts & Minds might
be an interesting place from which to order some books. With the gift card you made yourself.
Invite them to skip the faceless big box chains, and (as Donald Miller puts it it in the new A Million Miles in a Thousand Years) to “tell a better story.”
You can actually do what he recommends in A Million Miles…
in that great story about his lawyer friend Bob Goff, who is described
as starting (with his kids) a New Year’s Day parade in their
neighborhood. Only thing is, nobody on the street was allowed to watch
the parade. Everybody had to be in it!
.
Miller explains that Bob
thought that it isn’t good enough to tell a better story. We then
should invite people into that story.
We would like to think that
you believe that shopping here has been part of a purposeful story you
are telling with your life. Supporting independent businesses, ordering
books from somebody you trust, talking about the most important stuff
happening within the religious community, learning to make a difference,
being comforted and delighted, instructed and challenged, by the
authors we suggest or recommend. Why not invite somebody else into this
story? Yeah, why not bring them into the Hearts & Minds family of
friends?
Download the audio interview with me, burn it on a CD, and wrap it up and give it with the gift certificate
as a way of explaining why you support Hearts & Minds, how we
might serve them, and why your made that scrawlly little (or very
lovely, or large, for that matter) home-made gift card. And why we are
crazy enough to honor it. Or, obviously, skip that part. The gift card is what counts: a promise of books on their bedside of their own choosing.
Thanks for your support this year,
thanks for caring about sharing good books. Or hand-made gift cards, as
the case may be. Merry Christmas, one and all.
We’ll email you the confirmation number for you to put somewhere on the gift certificate.You do the rest.
Hearts & Minds 234 East Main Street Dallastown, PA 17313 717-246-3333