You are my friend, you are special - Part 1

I still send letters through the mail from time to time. Bills, mostly, though less often now than I used to, ever since an incident a few years ago when several important bills that had been mailed at the same time - including my mortgage payment - never got to where they were going. I have always loved stamps, though I've never been a dedicated stamp collector. I like to think of stamps as miniature pieces of artwork that might brighten the day of whoever happens to see them, or cause them to pause and think about the tiny image they had just glimpsed.

When the original design of the Purple Heart stamp came out in a 37 cent denomination in 2003, I decided to make that my "go-to" stamp. I had been spending a lot of time in the local VA hospital with my father, and I was watching the ongoing catastrophe of George W. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq, generating more and more wounded soldiers. The Purple Heart stamp honored them, but more importantly, it acknowledged their existence. For me, each time I used the stamp, it was a way of calling attention to them, and pointing a shaming glance at the Bush/Cheney administration and their war. I continued with this stamp through the price increases in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The 2014 "Forever" version of the stamp saw a redesign that reduced the size of the Purple Heart image, and I began looking to other stamps. Eventually, I settled on flag stamps as my standard, just because they were the most readily available.

On March 23, 2018, the United States Postal Service will release a new "Forever" stamp honoring beloved children's television show host Fred Rogers, and I think I will have a new "go-to" stamp.

Image from usps.com

Fred Rogers, aka Mister Rogers, was the creator and host of the long-running PBS program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. There has been much written about him that it would be redundant for me to write more. But I think I will stock up on this stamp. saving some, but using the rest for all my mail for as long as the supply lasts. And with each one I hope someone might see it and remember Mister Rogers' messages of caring, acceptance, friendship, and love. This world needs a big dose of Mister Rogers right now.


NEXT: Singing songs to dying cats, and the summer I spent living in Mister Rogers' neighborhood.