Going Postal

I’ve explained before why I call this “occasional bs.” Kind of hard for me to commit. So here it is about 4 months since my last blog. A lot has changed in the world. A bunch of miners were stuck in a hole for a couple of months, my college football season has started and ended, the Rangers won a playoff series! Maybe if I don’t write again for another four months I could start my next blog with “I can’t believe the Cowboys won the Super Bowl!” OK, on to reality.

Today I went with the fiancé to the post office. You would think this would be a very mundane event. You’d be wrong. Here is what I saw today at the post office……….

First, I got to open the door for the most pregnant woman I have ever seen. Something about a pregnant woman ALWAYS makes me smile. I don’t think it is the fact that I’m just being smug because I don’t have to endure the labors of pregnancy either. I really appreciate the commitment taken on by woman to have children. I do envy the bond they are experiencing with their unborn children. I am a father, and I love my children more than the world, but a mother feels it physically as well as emotionally. What a blessing to carry a life up to birth. I used to tell my children’s mother she was never as beautiful as when she was pregnant. I think most men (fathers) would agree.

Second, I witnessed a woman with four (yes, four) children all under the age of 6 give each of the children a letter so they could deposit it in the receptacle and then proceed down the long corridor to leave. She was walking. But she was the only one. One kid was skipping. One kid was kind of running. One kid was pretending to be an airplane. The last one was hopping. This brought back such childhood bliss. I remember my daughters skipped everywhere. Childhood innocence is one of God’s most perfect things. How I would love to be able to just skip somewhere. How I wish to walk thru a parking lot pretending to be an airplane. I guess I could. But what I’d really like is to have my childhood innocence back.

Third was the slightly older than middle aged man decked out in long sleeve button down shirt tucked into running shorts with black socks and brown sandals. Kind of says, “I’ve done my time, I’ll do what I want and don’t really give a rat’s ass what you think!” We all know this guy. Either from work or maybe our own father. My dad used to wear a bumble suit. What? You don’t know what a bumble suit is? It was bright yellow coveralls and black suede tied boots that went just above the ankle. On cold days there was a matching black sweater. He would wear this to the Safe-way store that used to be at Rundberg and N. Lamar (who remembers that?). He just didn’t care. When I let him know of my displeasure with the no-name brands of clothes (toughskins, trax shoes, etc) he got for me, he asked,”if you were on a deserted island, would you care what brand your clothes were?” The answer is “no” but even on a deserted island I WOULD NOT wear a bumble suit!

And finally a woman walks by who has to be at least in her 80’s. She stops in front of me and looks at me and asks, “how are you today young man?” Then she has the nerve to wait for an answer. The funny thing is, looking into her face I could tell she really cared and was indeed waiting for an answer. I told her I was living the dream and she was really happy with that. As a matter of fact she said, “well that’s just fine.” I will bet you this woman makes some of the meanest chocolate chip cookies around. She was just so content looking. As I visited with her I got to thinking about how when I am getting older I hope I can be as excited with each day as she seems to be.

So at the post office today what I saw were the varying stages of life. From unborn child, to childhood bliss, to me, to slightly older than middle aged man, to old woman. Quite an experience. As of today I’ve decided going postal isn’t such a bad thing.