Living letter office...

Post offices are very important places, just as letters are very important things. I don't use either much, but I would never want to see them go.

I mean really, can anyone argue against the notion that letters are wishes and that post offices are magic portals between the present and the rest of the universe? Is anyone unclear on the fact that postal workers are the guardians of human fate? It's a tough job and so yeah, it makes them a little grumpy sometimes.

All of this came rushing back to me today at the Santa Monica post office, a shabby little room with long lines and short tempers. It's all pretty depressing on the surface. Don't fall for it. The nice lady behind the counter was so nonchalant about the way she weighed my very important envelope, so matter of fact about the different stamp options, one would hardly notice all the magic levers and incantations that were being worked into the fine grain of time and space.

This just doesn't happen with email people.

(Indian Peacock, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, stamp issued 1990)