Lost and Found
Earlier this month, as I was starting my Christmas card push, I bought several sheets of specialty Christmas stamps. Time passed between the buying and the using. Guess what? The stamps disappeared. I couldn’t remember where I put them. I sighed. I went back to the post office, bought three more sheets of stamps. I addressed the cards. Sealed them. Affixed the new stamps.
By now you know where this is going. That afternoon, as I was moving papers around on my desk, having mailed my cards, I found the original stamps. I am now stamp rich. I have a partial roll of forever US flag stamps, and three sheets of forever Christmas stamps. Given my age, that’s probably a lifetime of stamps. Of course, I can always use the Christmas stamps next year. The trick will be to see if I can hold onto them. Maybe holding onto them, however, is the wrong approach.
Probably the best thing to do in 2022 would be to dedicate myself to paying more attention to people’s birthdays. Cards need stamps. I’ll use’em. My wife was excellent at the job. In fact, she accumulated birthday cards, so she was never without. If I follow through, it will be just another way in which she has made me a better man. And spending time thinking about other people seems a good choice and a great way to defeat the ennui (tip of the hat to Michael Nesmith) that currently engulfs my life. So, let’s have a toast for something to do and the one who showed me how to do it. Thanks, Pharaby Ann.
John W. Wilson is the author of the Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale