How the pandemic reignited my love affair with the U.S. Postal Service

I have taken the U.S. Postal Service for granted my entire life — that is, until the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election brought a new appreciation for the much maligned institution. The post office is nearly as central to my experience on this planet as is the sun rising each morning; I can’t always see either, but I know that I can depend on both.

My relationship with the post office has been a love affair going back to when I first learned to write. As a seven-year-old homesick boy visiting my grandfather’s farm in Jones County, I wrote my first love letter to my mom in the form of a poem. From those early elementary school days I began ordering stuff through the mail — whether it was cutting out cereal box tops or collecting the specified number of candy wrappers to send along with 99 cents — always 99 cents, it seemed — to get a toy or a magnifying glass or a comic book. I once ordered an ant farm and a telescope and I wrote letters requesting autographed pictures of baseball legends. I found nothing quite as exciting as waiting patiently by the mailbox day after day.