When You Care Enough by Mary Flynn

by Mary Flynn

As a former full-time writer for Hallmark Cards, I have a long-standing affinity for the brand that has carried over to the popular Hallmark Channel. Even so, I couldn’t help taking a tongue-in-cheek look at this TV programming giant.

When You Care Enough

It was just about a hundred years ago that Joyce Hall began capturing the imagination of the world with endearing (and some might say sappy) sentiments that would eventually corner the billion-dollar greeting card market. A century later it is the Hallmark brand once again that has captured the imagination and cornered the market on endearing (and some might say sappy) sentiments on television, this time by way of a phenomenon known as the Hallmark Channel. The appeal to women is stunning, especially at Christmastime.

Even as we poke fun at ourselves falling for the mush, we fall every time. And I’m right in there with the rest, getting into my jammies with my cocoa for the latest offering, as I say to myself, “Let’s see, is this going to be one where the cynical corporate woman who hates Christmas packs it all in for the guy who owns the pumpkin farm, or might it be the over-worked woman who questions her life choices, then wakes up in another life, eventually realizing what she’d had all along?” 

Sometimes, it’s the struggling event planner or the hotel maid who, through one fortuitous circumstance or another, ends up in a far-away castle where the handsome prince will choose her over the haughty duchess he was destined to marry. On and on and on, and we just can’t get enough of it. We know that it’s a blatant formula—the story line is endlessly predictable and there is no doubt how it’s going to end, but there we are, entranced.

“Corporate” doesn’t do very well in the Hallmark Channel world, where marketing execs and developers eventually trade in their suits and ties for a work-belt and a pick-up truck in the country. It’s about the drifter who turns out to be an accomplished chef or the architect who finds fulfillment at last as the town handy-man. There might even be a secretly wealthy former hedge fund manager from the big city who now owns the small country diner and spends his time volunteering at the dog kennel. 

It’s obvious that the word has gone out to the leading men: look, you’re allowed to do woodworking, repair musical instruments, teach art or be a successful author, stuff like that, but under no circumstance can you hold a job in one of those big crowded cities where nothing good comes of anything. And there’s not a single high-powered female who can resist such a man—eventually she will come to her senses and cave. 

Time after time, we blissfully accept the premise that the beloved old library is about to  be torn down for a dastardly shopping mall, and that the days are always numbered for the family tree farm, pumpkin farm, tulip farm, and book store. Something’s got to be done to save the children’s hospital and the historical landmark. And there is simply never going to be enough money in the budget for the school’s music program. 

If they can only sell enough sugar cookies, they might be able to make the two million dollars they need by Thursday. But wait. Aha! One of the corporate CEOs will miraculously have a change of heart and come to the rescue by…well, you know, because all is never lost in the Hallmark Channel world. 

When you have cared enough to send the very best for a hundred years, then what else can we expect except the most beautiful of outcomes. Everything is saved, everyone is redeemed, everyone loves Christmas once again, and, finally…finally, the big kiss. Because on the Hallmark Channel things have to end with a kiss. And not just any kiss. It’s got to be the one that we who are sitting there in our jammies sipping our cocoa will swoon over. 

So, for starters, there’s got to be a crowd around. The big kiss needs a big crowd around. That’s why it will take place at the Christmas parade, the town festival, the concert, sometimes even at the gate at the bustling airport—so that everyone around will see the big kiss and applaud and cheer. I can’t imagine why someone would actually applaud two people blocking the gate. I often expect someone in the line to yell out, “Hey, this flight we’re all trying to take to get home for Christmas is not about you.” But they never do. They applaud with the rest. And I often think that next time I get a big kiss, I’d like to have a lot of cheering and applause. Change is good.

And even that’s not all. Remember, it’s winter. It’s Christmas. It’s Hallmark. So, we’ll have the big kiss and we’ll have the rousing applause. But then, having saved the best for last, we shall have snow. At the very moment their lips meet, the snowflakes will fall, some as large as hubcaps. I’m pretty sure if there’s a man in the house, he’s already gotten out of there—he’s even opted to do the dishes or take out the garbage without being asked. Not us. We smile. We cry. We’ve recorded it. We will watch it again…and maybe again. Eventually, it will become a movie to fall asleep by. But it beats network news. It beats anything with forensics in it. It almost beats the shopping channel. And in the end, it is the only thing important enough to push The Golden Girls reruns off the air. We care that much.

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Mary Flynn is a gold-medal author of fiction, a poet, an international conference speaker for Disney (retired), and a former full time writer for Hallmark Cards. Her stories are an eclectic and imaginative mix of humor, pathos and irony that explore the human experience, often with a surprising twist. She loves meeting readers, other writers and, of course, people from her beloved native Brooklyn.

Find out more about more about Mary on her website https://www.maryflynnwrites.com/

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers