Envelopes

File Under: What's inside

Tonight I came home from work, opened the mailbox and a stack of mail fell to the ground. I hate when that happens. I had a number of envelopes addressed to me, containing various things. As I often do, I sort my mail as I’m walking upstairs, deciding which I would open first, which looked the most important. That got me thinking about the vehicle itself, the envelope. Call me strange, I sometimes focus on the minutiae. This is one of those times.

Envelopes have a very important task. They carry information from point A to point B, and sometimes to Point C and D, especially if it’s an inter-departmental envelope. When we were young and a family member handed us an envelope, it usually contained a card and some money. So early on, we learned to like envelopes. Every February, in school, classrooms filled with children handed envelopes to each other and we learned of who wanted to be our Valentine. Sometimes there was candy, too. As we got older, we got our first job and our first paycheck came in an envelope. With that first check, maybe you opened a bank account. A month later, a bank statement arrived in the mail…in an envelope. Maybe you became excited when, while shopping, you were offered the opportunity to open a store credit card account. Cool…until the bill arrived…in an envelope. Ouch. You bought a car, a payment book arrived in the mail, in a thick envelope. A thinner envelope arrived one day. Inside, a summons for Jury Duty. Not one of my favorite envelopes to receive. Then there are those envelopes that are marked “TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY, ADULT MATERIAL ENCLOSED.” Considering the stack of mail that arrived that day, you opened that envelope first, admit it. I did.

So on a day like today, when I opened one envelope that contained a check, one that contained a credit card offer, one that contained a renewal invoice for a magazine (Martha Stewart Living…yes, I love my Martha…but that’ll be a different blog entry), and one that had a solicitation for a charitable donation, I appreciated the journey that each one took and the fact that they reached their intended destination.

The next time you receive an envelope, appreciate the journey it took as well as the contents it brought your way.