GOING POSTAL

The difference between e-mail and regular mail is that computers handle e-mail and computers never decide to come to work one day and shoot all the other computers."  James Cascio

I am sure that you heard the news about raising the price of stamps, yet again, in January.  I feel a lot of nostalgia for the struggling postal system.  My Dad was the last presidentially-appointed postmaster. He served in Warrenton, where I grew up.  I can still remember people knocking on our door and asking him if he knew where so and so lived.  He probably did, since at that time, Warrenton was not as populated as it is now. 

As a society, we have become completely reliant on technology.  I type so much on the computer, that my handwriting is truly illegible...and the worse part about it is that I don't really care!  In my mind, I romanticize handwriting...I must own 50 empty journals (and probably 20 more that have a few pages with actual ink on them.)  And I am not going even count all the fabulous pens that are gathering dust on my desk. I have the best intentions...I start off with a marvelous and neat first journal entry - several pages long, but within days, I have succumb to producing a boring, messy, scribbled paragraph that compels me to simply give up. 

The same is true of letter writing.  I have some terrific stationary...in a Rubbermaid container...in the closet.  In other words - it is never going to happen.  I am never going to sit at a lovely desk, with a hand-crafted fountain pen, and express my heart to any of my friends or loved ones.  Alas, they are lucky if they get an IM from me!

Writing is old fashioned...and yet - I think we are missing something valuable.  We miss the time it takes to really connect with someone.  All that time we would spend forming the words with a pen on paper...thinking about what we want to say...thinking about the recipient.  We would actually be placing more value on the person...really letting them know we care. 

I don't remember the last time I received a hand-written letter.  Do you?  Maybe I was a child.  Who knows.  Oh well...perhaps I will pull out one of those journals...or fish around in my closet for a box of stationary.  The nightly news reported that the Queen spends $458,000 on stationary!  Can you believe it????  I think she must be solely responsible for the fact that the postal system still exists!