Why don’t we?

It’s the second week of my new series and I already have a reader question!  Isn’t that so exciting? 

Angie from Huxley writes: “The question I pondered yesterday: Why, in this world of high-tech efficiency, is the US Postal Service still hiring people to drive their cars around and put mail in everyone's mailboxes? I drove behind a mail carrier and the whole thing seemed so slow and out-dated. I don't have a solution though! Any thoughts, my friend...?”

Well, yes.  I have lots of thoughts about everything because I think all the time.  Here’s what I am thinking now:

The reason that the US Postal System (USPS) still drives those cute little white trucks with the steering wheel on the right side is NOT so they can annoy you with their stopping and starting—though, dear reader, I know that it can feel like that especially when you live in a big metropolis like Huxley, Iowa.  The reason that this antiquated practice is still in existence is because America is obsessed with speed and efficiency and the USPS is trying to remind everyone to slow down, get out and walk, and meet your neighbors.  It is trying to capture a little of “yesteryear America”—ever notice how the carriers even wear short pants—kind of like knickers, heh? 

Every single household in America has a mail address of some kind and the post man delivers to every one of these.  And he drives his little white truck to most of them.  In a way, America’s postman is kind of like a real live Santa that even evangelical Christian homeschool parents can let their little ones believe in without fear of condemnation. And in the same way, his little white truck* is like Santa’s sleigh full of exciting junk mail and bills! 

So, though I don’t have a solution for your problem, Angie, I’m not sure you need one.  Maybe you should just change your paradigm regarding this age-old delivery system and learn to appreciate it’s quaintness and predictability.   Or maybe, next time you see the postal Santa in his sleigh on wheels, you just need to find a different route home.  Either way works.

 

*By the way, the little Santa truck is not the only way the
USPS delivers it’s mail.  Look what I found on www.aboutusps.com :  The Postal Service moves mail using planes, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, float planes, hovercrafts, T-3s, street cars, mules, snowmobiles, bicycles and feet.  

I wish my mailwoman would deliver my mail in a hovercraft.  Now that would make the ol’ postal service look all tech-savy and modern, don’t ya think?