Play Post Office with Me

TIME magazine (3/15 issue), says it's email that may sound the death knell for the USPS. In 2009, there was a 13% drop in mail volume. Most people are paying bills online. And there are so many alternatives to sending packages than there used to be. I am an antique because I write between two to four letters or cards a week. I love to send, and receive, handwritten letters. Writing letters has always been my style. I have every letter I ever wrote to one of my grandmom's. They were returned to me in a vintage sewing box when she died. I went through them once and put them in order by date. It was a kick to read what had been on my mind from age 5 to 25, what I was thinking, feeling, doing...I also found one letter my brother had sent describing his feelings for his first serious girlfriend in high school, who he eventually married (after he was divorced once and she twice -- at least this time they seem to have gotten it right).

I've kept every letter or note given to me of import. (If it's just a card with a line or two I usually toss those). They are a time capsule. They reveal friends (some gone, a few even forgotten), who I was, and what was 'important.' Re-reading them all eventually is on my agenda someday. Mom returned the letters I wrote them when I lived out west and back east 14 years. I hope to rediscover and reconnect with more of my authentic self, and maybe more old friends I've not kept up with that I'm reminded of this way.

I don't know why, but em cards kinda bother me. It's really nice and all to be thought of, of course, but it's just not the same as if they'd made the effort of buying a card and writing in it and mailing it off. I like to personalize my notes. I love to buy cards and stationery. I keep a variety of stamps to post with, never using a 'flag' stamp for personal correspondence. I used to use sealing wax until someone told me it mucks up the machines at the post office, so if I use a seal now I enclose the letter in another envelope.

I noticed a fall-off of service at post offices a few years ago that has grown worse. A number of returns on letters that should have gone through. A few returns on 'forwards' that shouldn't have come back. Some priority mail that didn't make it within the time frame. And always, those near-constant stamp increases. Maybe if the workers did a better job they wouldn't be experiencing such a high rate of fall-off, who knows. But I hope we don't look back with nostalgia for when there was a postal service.

Since our Founding Fathers, we've had some form of mail delivery. It would be tragic, I think, to see that fall by the wayside. That wouldn't be 'progress.' That would just be sad. I'm doing my part. Maybe even more than my share.