The stamp records the effort of sending, not the importance of what was said.

What it costs to send a thing says nothing about what the thing contains. The same postage carries a bill, a love letter, and a note that ends a friendship. Effort and importance are measured on separate scales, and only one of them is printed on the envelope. That is worth holding onto whenever you use effort as a stand-in for meaning.

Think about where you judge a message by how much trouble it took. A short text sent at the right hour can matter more than a long letter sent late. Attend to what was said as well as to what it evidently cost.