Despite everything, I believe the post office is good at heart...

What is this?  It looks like our "Three-Fifty" DVD (mailed via US Post office) was attacked by a Land Shark. Somewhere between the post office near my home and the 5 miles the package traveled to get to El Segundo... it was sliced and diced and lost the DVD, but the envelope and packaging made it to the address. 

Despite this, I still believe the post office is good at heart.  I have an Anne Frank complex.  I know this. Despite evidence to the contrary, I believe that people really are good at heart and am almost always ready to forgive whomever for whatever with time and other balms.  It's a weakness. Or a strength.  Depending on who you are. 

I like the post office.  Amidst the recession and the news of post office having to cut services and shut postal facilities - my response is about how much I actually love the post office and I ask, "Why can't we figure out ways they can increase revenue instead of just shutter them down?" The post office is so important to smaller communities.  You might imagine that after this "episode" with a simple mailing of a DVD, I would be upset and change my mind; but no. I hold fast to my love.

I like stamps.  I like buying stamps, I like placing stamps on envelopes, I like going to the post office and standing in line and buying my stamps from a person rather than from a machine. I like mailing stamped letters and I like getting stamped letters in the mail. On large envelopes I have, at times, even created collages and stories out of a variety of different valued stamps so that the recipient can smile and see the connection between the stamps and feel a story, crack a smile. 

I like to catch the eye of the manager locking the doors at 4:59:59 and smile, make that connection and slip my way through the glass doors at 4:59:59.9 because my Twitter addiction made lose track of time and I'm late.  Again.

 

I like seeing who is at the post office and I wonder what they are shipping and to whom they are shipping.  And I wonder who do they love so much that they schlepped a bulging box almost bigger than themselves to this little post office, to ship it in person? That's some serious love.  Sometimes I ask them outloud.  Sometimes I mind my own business.

I like saying "Hi, Grace!" to Grace behind the window - and watching her be surprised and a little fearful that someone actually knows and calls her by name.  

I like figuring out how many stamps I need and buying more stamps than I need.  I like seeing the new artwork for stamps and buying some for friends and relatives if the stamps happen to be related to their interests.  And I love that anytime I might have a yearning for an analog experience, all I have to do is walk to the post office, hand real cash for a few stamps to a real human being and there it is - a little piece of life that the iPhone can't even begin to replace. 

Get upset over a machine (or a land shark) chewing through an envelope, a cardboard DVD cover and losing a DVD?  Nope.  Look at that picture - it's a priceless laugh.