A Shout Out for the US Postal Service

Back when I was a teenager, before the days of email, chat, blogs, web forums and (gasp!) iPhones, we wrote letters to keep in touch. I had brothers living in other states - and other countries - for a good portion of my young adult life.  Last Christmas, I found some of the letters we wrote back and forth. Well, I found the forth ones, anyway ... you'll have to ask them about the back ones.  At any rate, I have found them enjoyable to read and discovered that they help me remember what life was like in "the olden days".

With that in mind, and the fact that there were some bonus surprises (!) in my box of grapefruit and oranges from Arizona today, I have decided to blog about mail.  I know, I know... save the talk about the irony of this situation for later.

I don't know about you, but I love mail.

Bills are ok - they remind me how fast time is going by. Junk mail ... just fills up my recycling bin. But real mail?  Real mail is kind of like chocolate.

You open it carefully; savor it; enjoy it; then put it down and pick it up again later, just to enjoy it a second time. The flavor depends on the personality of the sender.  You tell your friends about the best ones ... they are the highlight of your day - sometimes even your week!

There is nothing quite like walking to the mailbox, pulling out the stack of stuff, and finding a letter - bona fide communication from another human being - addressed to you.  It says, "I love you. I'm thinking about you." like nothing else can - way more than the "thinking about you" that firing off a quick email conveys. 

The instantaneous communication available in our electronically connected world has its place, but I appreciate the personal touches of wrinkled & folded paper with beautiful handwriting or a child's cursive on a pen-and-ink, pictures-in-the-margins, hearts-and-hugs-in-the-P.S.'s letter.

Makes me wonder why I don't write them more often.