Gone Postal

Inspired by my recent influx of snail mail, I did a little look-see into the United States Postal Service. It isn’t too fascinating, nothing riveting or spell-bounding. The only thing that anyone really recognizes about the USPS is how to “go postal.” Yeah, that old phrase. Coined in the mid-90’s due to several postal employees going on shooting spree’s at their respective workplaces. Very sad, but they have just as much likelihood of going mental as any other workplace. I don’t want to dog on my peeps. They deliver my snail mail I love so much.

On that note, I love snail mail. Can't say it enough. I’ve been a fan from day one. Walking home from school, driving home from work, seeing a pile of letters on the counter and noting that not all of them are bills is fun. It’s uplifting. It puts a smile on your face. As lame as some people may think postal mail is, you’re wrong. So wrong. And I’m right. And it really isn’t all that snail like for life occurrences that deserve a handwritten note. It may be 2 seconds to deliver an e-mail, but it’s only (roughly) 2 days to deliver a card! That’s a pretty fast snail, all things considered. Just saying.

I’ve gotten a slew of get well cards and notes and I appreciate all of them. It shows that someone took the time to handwrite me (and just me, no mass text or email with bcc:’s) a note with something personal to go with it: a story, news, a joke, anything. It’s a lost art, that of notewriting. My Grandmother’s penmanship is precise with its loops and curls whereas mine is scattered loops + a curl here and a block letter there. It’s all over the place and hers is in a straight line. It’s beautiful to see her script splayed out at the heart of a card. I know her hands touched it and now mine are. When I look at these letters 10, 20, 50 years down the line I’ll remember that feeling of receiving it, of opening it the first time.

Right, so the history of the USPS. It’s incarnation was in Philadelphia by Ben Franklin in the year 1775. Since then it was authorized in the Constitution when that came about, and reorganized a time or two until its final life as what you see today, an independent organization run separate from the Government. Sadly though, due to the plummet in usage of snail mail, they’ve gone into deficit and are struggling to stay above it all. Help them out? Check yes here.

Cool though: They have the largest civilian fleet of vehicles and employ the second largest group of civilians as well. Want to ponder a guess as to who beats them?

Nope, not the Federal Government (not considered civilians, eh?).

Try Walmart. Not all that surprising, right?

The USPS is obligated to serve all Americans no matter the geography. So when I move to Australia next year, guess who’ll be helping deliver my snail mail? Yeap, you get the idea.

And no, I’m not moving to Australia, though that would be awesome. Food for thought…