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Gonna use this opportunity to tell a story about why I love the post office. And I'm making it thread because (a) I love this story, and (b) so @FullFrontalSamB can mail lots of things. #MailedIt https://twitter.com/GloriaSteinem/status/1278372164266340352
Preamble: I have, on more than one occasion, left my wallet at the post office. I blame the odd crook above their stamp/packaging ATM equivalent. It holds, and then obscures, a wallet juuuust right #MailedIt
When I realized where I'd left it, I made my way back and stood in a short line to chat with the next available postal worker. A couple in front of me was buying stamps. Bird stamps, to be specific. #MailedIt
Then I heard the magic words: "I'm gonna ask you some trivia questions before you buy them." Now, anyone who's met me KNOWS this was a big deal. I know a lot of things for no good reason, so trivia is where I shine. #MailedIt
Reader, it got better.
COUPLE: We don't know a lot about birds.
POSTAL WORKER: That's okay, this is about the MOVIE The Birds.
ME, A NOSY BUT WELL-EQUIPPED FILM STUDIES MINOR:
#MailedIt
COUPLE: We don't know a lot about birds.
POSTAL WORKER: That's okay, this is about the MOVIE The Birds.
ME, A NOSY BUT WELL-EQUIPPED FILM STUDIES MINOR:
#MailedIt
They get the first few questions. But then they start to get into film actors and their relatives - which, here again, knowledge that NO ONE needs but I ABSOLUTELY have. So I raise my hand and ask the teller and the couple, "Can I help?" #MailedIt
So together, this couple I'd never met and I answered the remaining questions about celebrity lore, and got them their stamps. And right after? Got me, my wallet. #MailedIt
I care a lot about finding fun in one's work, and I loved the way that this postal worker (fellow Black woman!) found a way to take an experience that most people dread like going to the Post Office, and make it fun for herself AND the people dreading the task. #MailedIt
To be clear, I love the Post Office for a host of other reasons, but this particular encounter - on a day where I had also needed a bit of a boost and found it in this woman and this moment - affirms why the people who do this work should get to keep doing it. #MailedIt
Anyway, I'm all done. Support your Post Office. Buy stamps. Send your friend fun things. And for the love of all things good, vote - by mail, absentee, any way that it's safe or possible to do so. #MailedIt
