SEAL ROCK, Ore. - A mother named Rachel opens her rural metal mailbox here at Seal Rock and exclaims to her daughter that nobody loves us because there’s nothing good in the mail but junk advertisements.
For Rachel and millions of other Americans, collecting the so-called “snail mail” from their mailboxes has become – as USA Today stated in a recent Feb. 8 cover story – “the most predictably disappointing part" of just about anyone’s day when opening the mailbox to find no personal mail; and certainly no real Valentines. In fact, the expectation of many Americans this year to actually receive a traditional Valentine with a postage stamp on it is “very low,” adds Rachel during a recent Huliq interview. “I can’t remember when I actually got a hand-written letter from someone in my family or a friend. People just do Facebook and e-mail and send text messages and Tweets. I sure miss getting a Valentine though.” At the same time, USA Today noted how this view from Rachel -- and millions of other Americans -- “is what the Postal Services calls ‘the mail moment,’ when we collect, sort and open our mail. For generations, this moment has bound us together as people and a nation.”
Sadly, real mail is now almost gone with the wind thanks to e-mail’s growth and the saturation of smartphones and “tablets” that move digital mail for “busy” Americans who simply don’t want to write letters, or send such things as paper Valentines by traditional mail.
Americans miss “real” mail in their mailboxes
Mail sent by the U.S. Postal Service is really something special, and many Americans don’t realize that “we’ve lost something very special,” adds Rachel. Thus, in today’s digital world, the “mail” or “Valentine” you may receive next Tuesday on Valentine’s Day will be online and not something you can touch, smell or hold next to your heart and smile; as is the case with letters and Valentine’s made of paper and address by the hand of someone who cares for you.
In turn, the recent cover report for USA Today stated that going to the mailbox is “when we learned what Grandma sent us, who wanted to be our Valentine, where we’d gotten into school, whether we’d be drafted. It’s when we heard who had been born and who had died, and whether the check really was in the mail.”
At the same time, the USA Today story lamented how “each household’s mail moment has its rules and rituals – who opens what, whether it’s left the kitchen counter or hall table. It’s when someone calls, ‘Anything good in the mail?’ The answer, usually, has been yes.”
According to this report, “in 2011, First-Class Mail – letters, large envelopes, small packages – was down 6.4%, the sixth decline in six years. As First Class drops, Standard Mail – mostly advertising and solicitations – becomes a bigger part of the mail stream. Last year, as total mail volume dropped, Standard rose 2.9%; it now weighs more than twice as much as all First Class Mail.”
At the same time, David Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, told USA Today that “we don’t think First-Class volume is coming back.”
Cold e-mail and text messages is all we get
Because “the Internet provides a faster, cheaper and easier way to communicate,” the USA Today report on to report the sad demise of real mail and even Valentines sent to people in America today.
“It’s a disconnect of the heart,” quipped Rachel while starring out at her empty rural metal mailbox that sits along the Pacific Coast Highway in the small coastal town of Seal Rock, Oregon. “Out here, we’re pretty remote already, and then you add no personal mail and it gets very cold.”
It was back in 1863, with the creation of Free City Delivery, that the U.S. Post Office Department began delivering mail to home addresses. Now, some 150 years later “all we have is e-mail this Valentine’s Day and that hurts my heart a lot,” adds her eyes almost disappeared in her sad face over the prospect of no more Valentines being delivered by her local mailman.
Valentine’s Day musts include hand-written love letters
Some of the most romantic places in the nearby university town of Eugene are places where college students write love letters.
At the same time, there’s a growing view that “it’s not cool to try and get away with some digital message over a real Valentine’s Day card.”
Many college students will agree that the real story of Valentine’s Day is a story of suffering because “it’s not easy writing an eloquent epistle to the man or woman of your dreams,” says University of Oregon student Lara Werner who’s young, aggressive and pushing the envelope for her boyfriend Tom to “give me something other than a lame e-mail card” on Valentine’s Day.
In turn, Tom is brainstorming ideas on a white sheet of paper that remains white and blank even after three cups of coffee at the campus Starbucks. Tom then smirks smugly with the following poem for Lara: “Her eyes were the beautiful blue of a robin’s eggs and had just as much expression.”
“What do you think,” asks Tom of his poem thus far?
Tom’s friend, Jake, suggests he round the poem out with something like “I’m so happy I found you.”
Then, both dudes just pack it in and say “it’s so much easier to send an e-mail Valentine.” So it goes.
Image source of a curbside mailbox with a red flag that, when raised, the flag indicates outgoing mail. Sadly, such red flags are becoming rusted shut due to non-use by today’s busy and modern Americans who prefer e-mailing, texting and Tweeting over taking the time to write a hand-written letter or even send a Valentine made of paper through the mail. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_box
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