Postage Stamps are Little Marvels

On By WTGIn Everyday Mindfulness

Pixabay: AngelaT Free for commercial use; no attribution required

The price of a U.S. first-class stamp goes up January 27, 2019 from $0.50 to $0.55.

If you’re of a certain generation you might ask, “What’s a stamp?”

If you were alive 50-years-ago, when stamps were $0.06, you might grumble about the higher price.

But focusing on the price misses something bigger: the marvel of what you get for the price of that stamp; that stamp affixed to an envelope you can send to a friend 3,000 miles away.

With that stamp, a person comes to your door and personally picks up your card.  Maybe it’s a card celebrating your friend’s birthday. Maybe it’s a condolence card, giving comfort for a recent loss. Maybe it’s a graduation card or a Valentine’s card or a “just because” card.

It doesn’t matter. For the price of that stamp, your card gets conveyed into a system of people and machines and trucks and planes that, within a few days, will ensure your card is delivered, in person by yet another individual, directly to your friend’s house. All for 50-cents.

That…is a marvel.

For the price of that stamp, your friend is reading words you wrote by hand, on a card you chose just for them. When they picked up their mail, there, in among bills and junk mail and circulars, they saw a hand-addressed envelope with their name on it. When they saw that envelope with its 50-cent stamp and your return address, they smiled and felt a surge of pleasure.

The stamp has a marvelous power technology and email don’t have.

While technology allows you to deliver a written message to your friend instantly, that message gets delivered to an email box that is swamped to the brim with other emails: communications from colleagues, bosses, vendors and marketers; family, friends, newsletters and spammers. Your friend is overwhelmed by their email box.  They are awash in emails.

But when your hand-addressed envelope shows up in your friend’s real mailbox? Where they can retrieve it, hold it, savor it?  Delivered there by a little stamp?

That is a unicorn; a rare gift.

It’s a marvel.

 

Photo source: AngelaT on Pixabay

Postage Price Increase Information:

The price of a stamp will be $0.55 effective 1/27/19. If you’ve been planning to buy Forever stamps, now is a good time.  And who will you send your next card to?

 

22 thoughts on “Postage Stamps are Little Marvels”

  2. Thank you for putting it that way. I never complained about the prices of stamps being raised, but I get annoyed when I have leftover stamps and have to now WASTE 2!

    I don’t really send out mail anymore. It’s sad in a way.

    My next piece of mail with a stamp on it will probably be the IRS. Ha!

    Great post, btw.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Ah. The IRS envelope. Thanks to the little stamp. Without it you might have to drive to DC to deliver it personally!

      Wasting 2 stamps?? I’m dense; not following. Or else I’m slow on the humor.

      Thanks for reading and for commenting! Appreciate you being here. 💜

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Well, say the stamp I have is an old one worth 50 cents, and now the new ones are 55 cents (possibly inaccurate numbers). That means that the old one is not enough, and I have to add another one, making it $1, instead of 55 cents.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I have a bunch of 1-cent and 5-cent stamps so I can “upgrade” old stamps (pre-Forever stamps) to whatever the new rate is. For the Forever stamps, no need to upgrade!!

        Some of my old stamps are so old, I’m thinking of buying some 10-cent stamps!!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. It is good that there are stamps that can add the needed value, but it’s annoying to have to go to the store.

        It was funny when I had the Forever stamps and then the price of stamps dropped. What a joke.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. I missed the price drop period!

        Funny thing is that, with the Forever stamps, I tend to lose track of what the price of a stamp is.

        When it goes over an ounce, then I have to look. The new rates actually LOWER the price of a 2-ounce stamp from 71-cents to 70-cents. The 2nd ounce stamp is going down from 21-cents to 15-cents. Fancy that.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. I enjoy getting real mail . . . but I also enjoy e-mail updates from friends . . . and periodic phone calls.

    But don’t try texting me. I’ve blocked texts on my phone. I’m not interested in typing on a teeny tiny keyboard. 😛

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yup, we all have our preferences. And hopefully we’re doing a good job communicating with our friends our preferences. I put a link to an article about “Zero Inbox” vs “Infinity Inbox” approaches to email. It gives a sense of how others are handling email overload.

      I trust your friends know your texting habits!!

      My phone calling of friends has gone WAY down in this day of texting and emails and FB communications. Fascinates me.

      Thanks for commenting 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. I did look at the article and was amazed by the number of UNREAD messages (30,000!) in the writer’s in-box. That’s crazy.

        If I’m not going to read a message, I delete it.
        If I start to read it and realize it’s not relevant to me, I delete it.
        If I read an e-mail that doesn’t require a response or further action, I delete it.
        Once I’m finished with an e-mail, I delete it.

        Right now, my in-box has 18 messages in it.
        And I have another 200 or so e-mails in 10-12 e-files.

        That’s it!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The Queen of Delete. I love it! Excellent modeling for me to consider. I try and practice deleting but I know my file folders have more than 200 emails in them and my inbox has gotten stuffed. As a result, I now lean toward “Inbox Infinity.”

        I enjoy your comments. Thanks!

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Bobbi Taylor

    Great perspective, as always. However, this time it brought a few pangs of guilt as I switched to Jacquie Lawson e-cards years ago for the convenience and the novelty of them. I queue them up every month (or quarterly if life is crazy) and then I know I won’t forget. I have tried to still send paper cards for particularly noteworthy events such as the passing of someone dear to someone I care about. In that case, I spring for the card, the stamp, and the time to hand write the message. Perhaps I should do that more, even if it does cost 55 cents…

    Hugs!

    >

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. We have a couple of overseas friends who send us Jacquie Lawson e-cards on special occasions. We love them. We enjoy them. And after replying, we delete them.

      In contrast, I have a tough time tossing Christmas cards and Birthday cards so they become “clutter.”

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. There’s ALWAYS another perspective to consider. You’re great at bringing them in; thank you. I laughed when you said you have a tough time tossing “tangible” cards. I’ve got my own challenges there, too.

        As I said on another pose, there isn’t a single one-way to do it.

        I just marvel, though, at the bang for your buck a stamp delivers.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I agree. I had to send a few boxes of stuff to my brothers. At first, I thought $19 a box for priority mail was “high” . . . and then I thought about what I would have to pay someone to take the box from FL to NJ or from FL to CO. Then $19 seemed like a bargain!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. There isn’t a single one-way to connect with friends. The e-cards stand out as different than most emails and I’ve enjoyed yours :-). Sending something through one channel keeps the connections alive, versus going totally absent. And, I understand guilt and other feelings that pop up uninvited. From my perspective, it’s one of your characters delivering their lines. Now they can go back to playing cards backstage :-).

      I buy cards at Trader Joe’s because they are such a good value (99-cents). I keep them on hand. Along with stamps. I try and use them for thank yous to people we’ve had a social evening with. It’s one of MY characters writing them out!

      Thanks for reading (you’re so steady on that) and for commenting. Stay cozy.

      Like

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  6. Pingback: 100 Forever Stamps: $49.75 @ Costco – Walk the Goats

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