The Mighty Mailbox

All hail The Mighty Mailbox! Have you ever given much thought as to the importance of the mailbox?

Think about it…it is the only channel that exists today that can reach every household and/or business in America. The recent reform of the postal employee pensions system (fixing the USPS biggest cause of financial losses to date) only helps to ensure the postal system will be around for a long time. But there’s more to consider…

The 1977 movie, "The Mailbox" conveys how important the mailbox was in our daily relations. It tells
the story of an 83 year old widow named Leethe who loved her children, all of whom lived some distance from her. Leethe longed to receive letters from her family. She expectantly walks to the mailbox looking for cards and letters from them, but is repeatedly disappointed.

On rare occasions one of Leethe's children would call her. But Leethe was hard of hearing and preferred letters. She pleaded with her children and grandchildren to write to her because she couldn't "read phone conversations over and over." Still, the letters didn't come.

Finally one day a letter was waiting when Leethe made her daily trek to check the mailbox. She was so excited, she rushed back to the house to get her glasses so she could read it. She had barely opened the envelope when she suffered a fatal heart attack. As it turned out, the letter was from her daughter and said only that she wanted Leethe's consent to be placed in a nursing home.

There have been more movies that tell a good story using a more modern form of “mail” delivery. Take the 1998 blockbuster hit, “You’ve Got Mail. It’s about two rival business owners who can’t stand each other in person, but fall in love as they anonymously correspond via email over the internet.

But here we are in 2011. Many would argue that email, and other forms of online transactions will
make the mailbox obsolete. I disagree. First of all, we all have a little bit of “Leethe”(the widow in The Mailbox movie) in us. Who among us doesn’t enjoy finding a nice card or letter from a loved one in our mailbox? We just can’t help but anticipate that there might just be a nice surprise waiting for us there. With so many neighborhoods changing to “community mailboxes” these days, there is the added bonus of an opportunity to take just a moment out of a busy day to greet a neighbor also visiting the box.

Now, I realize that more and more people are going online for paying bills but they are also going online
for shopping. Your items have to be delivered somewhere, right?!? For example, if you want to rent a
movie (like “You’ve Got Mail), the movie can be delivered to your mailbox 2-3 days after you order it.
When you are finished watching it (and drying all those romantic comedy tears you shed), you simply put the movie back in your mailbox. And you are ready for more great movies. The same is true for many things we order online. Again, we anxiously visit our mailbox daily-hoping each day to find our treasure.

My friends, the mailbox is not only here to stay, but here to stay for a long. I wish you many happy
mailbox moments!

-CR