The Power of Mail

The holiday season (which is just about over as of this writing) is quite the time for mail. Holiday cards and letters, thank-you notes, and packages filled with presents. It’s amusing, then, that it appears that the postal service is ending next-day delivery and shuttering many of its locations across the US. Of course, as pointed out recently in The New Yorker, the rise of email and other forms of electronic communication are largely to blame.

Still, receiving a piece of mail is far more exciting than an email or an “@” mention in a tweet. Our many holiday cards on our mantle reminded me of this, and set me to thinking about why “analog” mail is such a joy to receive.