Sunday, March 22, 2015

Keeping Up with the Mail

Next to doing dishes, keeping up with the mail is the world’s most thankless task.

I try to fish out the bills and the occasional personal letter on a daily basis, but the rest piles up until it’s a foot high before I actually look at it. That’s about once a week, if I can force myself to get around to it.

Processing all this paper requires the dining room table to spread out on and make piles of stuff to keep—seed and plant catalogs to inform my landscaping business; endless reports on the status of Medicare claims and where we stand each month with our pharmaceutical coverage; paperwork from our retirement accounts; newsletters from my favorite causes to read when I have a moment; things I need to look into, like scheduling the next furnace servicing.

Into the recycling bag go the no-brainers: the questionnaire full of loaded questions from my lackluster state senator; the glossy presentations on high-end home furnishings we can’t afford; yet another brochure on warning signs that the underground gas pipeline in our neighborhood may have sprung a leak; the cheery booklet touting local purveyors whose wares and services we don’t need; and the endless money-off coupons for greasy, salt-laden fast food we had better not eat.

This whole process fills me with anxiety. I think of all the trees that have been cut down, the fuel expended, the carbon spewed into the atmosphere to create and transport all this stuff to my door, just to be recycled using up even more energy. Thing is, I've tried my darndest to stem the tide. I’ve opted out of most catalogs. I’ve asked Lands End and Travelsmith to send me just one catalog per season. I've pared down the magazines I subscribe to. I've gone to e-bills and e-statements whenever possible. 

Yet a week later, there’s another foot-high stack of mail to sort through. And last week’s piles are still on the dining table! 

It never ends.

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