Watch Those Flaps!

The pen in your hand is a magic wand with which you can send joy, hope, love and courage across deserts and plains, over mountains and seas, around the world and around the corner. ~Wilferd A. Peterson, American author

We all grumble about the postal service and sometimes, with good cause: reduced window operations, increased regulations, jacked-up prices.

So let me add another complaint to the pile — S-L-O-W delivery.

Recently, I sent my childhood friend a birthday card and letter in a small manila envelope. I sealed it with clear tape and stopped by the P.O. counter to make sure I had sufficient postage on it.

I mailed it about two weeks before her November birthday, thinking that surely was enough time for its timely arrival.

It wasn’t.

In her Christmas letter to me, she pointed out (nicely, of course) that my letter finally arrived an entire week after her birthday, causing her to fear something was wrong in my world because my correspondence is never late.

So when I mailed my Christmas letter to her — again sealed the way I’d done the birthday letter — I asked the P.O. clerk what had gone wrong.

Turns out, the problem likely was caused by somebody else failing to completely seal an envelope they’d mailed.

How can that be? I asked.

The clerk said their mail sorting machines are so fast that sometimes, one piece of mail gets hung up on a partially-sealed flap of another piece. And that delays both of them.

She added, We don’t have time to go behind people and reseal their letters.

Huh.

That’s not exactly a comforting thought. Nor do I find it a very acceptable explanation.

Still, if that’s the way things are, I can certainly refuse to add to the problem. So from now on, I’m careful to completely seal everything I mail, whether it be cards or letters.

I don’t want to be the cause of delaying somebody’s mail!