An anonymous letter gets Charles Handy thinking about the value of saying thank you

The other morning a letter arrived at my cottage in the country. It had a very large stamp on it and was addressed only to “Professor Charles Handy, England”, but our redoubtable postal service traced it down to me, and there it was.

So I opened it and a letter came out. All it said, in rather scrawly handwriting, was: “Dear Charles Handy, thank you so much.”

There was no return address and no signature that I could decipher. So if it was you, thank you so much. You made my day. Forgive me for not replying, but I couldn’t read your signature.

“Thank you.” Two little words, but they mean so much.

That afternoon I went to the supermarket to do my Christmas food shopping for the family, and was somewhat staggered by the huge sum of money I was offering up my bank card for.

I said to the lady at the till, “Look at that amount. You might at least say thank you.”

“I don’t need to,” she replied. “It’s on the receipt.”

“OK,” you might think. But the trouble is, those two little words mean nothing unless they are accompanied by two names: that of the thanks-giver and that of the receiver.

Her late Majesty the Queen, dishing out the medals at the Palace, was always careful to thank people by name for their services. It made all the difference. Otherwise, those two little words are just dust in the wind, or words on a receipt.

We should use them more often. They cost nothing, yet mean so much. But please, where possible, always attach a name.

So thank you for reading and have a wonderful Christmas season. This is Charles Handy wishing you well.

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