Since the advent of email and other electronic forms of communication, we seldom receive personal letters or postcards in the mail. A few of you will remember handwritten letters from your mom or dad, love notes from a girlfriend or boyfriend. Now we receive more mail than ever, but it is usually from a person we don’t know, a writer from a major company or organization.
I have one of those small mail boxes built into the house. Undoubtedly made when personal mail was the primary mail one received. Now, the deliverer of all that mail we don’t want stuffs everything into this tiny receptacle. I don’t know how many times I have bruised my hands trying to pull out the materials plugged up inside and shredding some of the contents in my efforts to retrieve. Our former letter carrier was thoughtful enough to put the larger pieces of mail inside the screen or storm door. (We are presently in storm door season.)
I particularly dislike receiving solicitations from charitable organizations that enclose a nickel, address labels, cards, notepads, calendars, gift wrapping and the like. Makes one feel a tad guilty if you throw that mail into the recycle bin. And some folks still don’t recycle. (We know who you are!) Think what that does to the landfills.
I have nothing against charitable organizations. I have worked or volunteered for such organizations. But they have multiplied tremendously. Who can afford to contribute to them all, not matter how worthy the cause. Would it be better if there were only one organization for every cause? Then that organization could compartmentalize into different aspects of that cause? For instance, if I wanted to donate money to the cancer fund, I could simply write “Cancer Fund – Research” on my check. Organizations would spend less money in solicitations, and people who like to support good deeds would be less frazzled and irritated. Isn’t that what we need for a bit of world harmony?
goatcenter 