Day 228 - Mailbox

 MAILBOX

Prompt - Mailbox : Open your mailbox and write something inspired by one of the pieces of mail you received

At what point did we switch from thinking 'mailbox' meant email rather than faithful old snail mail?  In the US that might be an interesting question.  Over here it's pretty meaningless, as only addicts of American TV would ever have referred to receiving their letter and parcels in a 'mailbox'.  It either came through the letter box or you opened the door to receive it.  So a 'mailbox' here has pretty much always been electronic, since we first started having email as a common element in our lives (about a couple of decades?).  

So the physical mailbox isn't what first springs to mind.  Yet it often provides the more engaging experience - items we can hold in our own hands.  Today I received a CD (which is now playing in the background as I type) which I paid for months ago and had totally forgotten about.  That's the kind of surprise that electronic mail struggles to provide.  Or there was the shock, a few days ago, of finding an actual postcard in our post.  When did that last happen.  But it did come from a couple of my wife's relatives who are deep into their eighties, and to whom email, Whatsapp, Messenger etc will always be a mystery.

There are emails I anticipate with some relish, but not with with as much excitement as I do the end result - an item I can touch.  So getting a tracking number, or delivery details, for an item I've ordered, is good, but the actual delivery is so much better.  Even more so with crowdfunded or pre-ordered items, like that CD, where the anticipation has gone on for months and months - or even been forgotten about.  I have several crowdfunded projects that look as if they will deliver what I'm after in the next two months, and those final moments will be the real highlights of my daily humdrum.  

These thoughts were spurred, not only by the CD, but by an email from another music project I'm backing, this one by Dean Owens, saying he has a show available to view online, and providing links.  Now that's something snail mail can't do!