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| Entry made by my great great grandfather, Thomas Riley Carson, to my great great grandmother, Lovina Jane Record Carson. |
We are losing the intimacy of paper -- paper on which our letters, books, and newspapers have been printed.
I found a letter today from my son. It was from November 2005. He wrote about his oldest son -- the only son he and my daughter-in-law had at that time. Alex was saying “oooooo” and trying to get into the entertainment center. The letter was written on three ring binder notebook paper in my son’s scratchy handwriting. I held the letter in my hand, smiling as I read, thinking about how much had changed since November 2005. I had saved his letter as I save all letters and cards. They are special. People have taken the time to sit down and write something to me. I do not think there are too many things that are more special than that act of writing, except maybe reading.
Something I don’t save except on-line or on the hard drive of my computer: emails. Everyone’s emails look the same, no individuality. I save them for the information contained therein but that’s it. We are living in the “Information Age.”
There is the anticipation of going out to the mail box and finding a letter or a card. I always look at the postage stamps on the different pieces of mail. My daughter-in-law is a good one for picking out special postage stamps to put on the outside of envelopes. We tend to buy the “Forever Stamp,” but I do appreciate the various postage stamps that are out there. I save the stamps and use them in collages. Tiny pieces of artwork.
Writing about “Forever Stamps” leads me to thinking about how we complain about the rising costs of stamps. 1982 was the last year that the U.S. Postal Service accepted tax dollars from the tax paying public after a 1970 strike of postal workers caused the Postal Reorganization Act to be passed, signed by President Nixon on August 12, 1970. (www.usps.com/postalhistory) Beginning in 1971, that act removed the U.S. Post Office Department from a cabinet position and morphed it into the United States Postal Service which is independent and set up like a corporation. On page 25 of that actual act which can be found at http://www.kevinrkosar.com/, you can see how the United States Postal Service was gradually weaned from taxpayer support. I don’t think we realize that, as we whine about the costs of rising postage, the United States Postal Service now operates as a corporation. Something created of the people, by the people and for the people doesn’t have to turn a profit, because it exists for the benefit of the taxpayers. A corporation does have to turn a profit, hence the rising cost of postage. If we all give a little -- "life enhancements" - my word for taxes, we all get a lot. But I got off track, sorry about that.
As I write, I realize the irony of how and where I am posting this. I’m on a computer sitting in an upstairs room in a flyover state. I’ve managed to include a couple of links in this posting that can take the reader to other sites where I found information. The reader doesn’t have to leave his or her computer and neither do I to do these things. A Boston terrier is snoring nearby and two cats are sleeping at my feet. Outside I can hear the rooster crowing. My husband is downstairs getting lamb chops ready for supper. (Yes, roosters crow all the day long, not just in the morning.) And in just a moment my finger will hover over "publish post" and on the Internet will appear my words about the demise of letter writing and the post office in general. And that posting will be done electronically with no paper or mail carrier involved. Just a binary code going out into the ether to be caught and posted on the Internet. We live in a virtual world.
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