My mum used to be a stamp collector, but having all the pressures of modernisation around her, she's turned into one of those e-mail freaks like any other working class woman of today, even though she still needed much help when it comes to using the computer and accessing the internet (technology literally repels her!).
It's been almost a year since she entrusted her stamp collection to me, finding out how much I've turned out to have a penchant for vintage items, and like what I said before, stamp collecting is a hobby I'd like to continue in place of my mum. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to add more stamps to that collection...until yesterday.
I was scheduled to send my fan mail for March that afternoon to one of my Idol favourites this season, Colton Dixon - yes, I'm a Messenger, and I was lucky enough to encounter a stamp exhibit at the post office. It was just the perfect comfort sight I needed to see after a bloody lot of final examinations.
It was like a wonderland for me and it got me so high! It was just this blissful feeling I thought I would get from books alone - the only things that sent me to my pseudo-heaven. Ha! But seeing those stamps, it felt like being connected to history. I may sound a bit too dramatic here, but it's true, I find a piece of history in stamps!
I also got to meet a dedicated stamp collector, Mr. Alfonso Cruz. He told me a lot about stamp collecting, which I found very helpful - like how to separate the stamps from the envelope they're stuck on (the trick is to soak them on water!). He called stamps miniature paintings. And he considers stamp-collecting as an art. I agree.
But here's the thing: like the principle of extension and amputation, when former necessities such as snail-mailing become a form of art due to the advancements of technology, it could be a prediction of its coming decline.
When I asked Mr. Cruz about the matter, how he feels about the decreasing amount of interest in stamp-collecting and snail-mailing, he told me that it's quite saddening, because sending handwritten and heartfelt letters is a lot better than the e-mail.
A friend of mine, Mao, told me something similar. When she received a letter I sent her in Bratislava, she said, "It was a good surprise when I found it in my rusty mail box. I thought about you, the time you spent to make the card, etc. when I saw the card! This is the beauty of the s-mail - you can see the person behind the letter/card."
True enough, it's sad, yes, but before snail mailing and stamp-collecting becomes obsolete, let us remind ourselves that they're the early beginnings of today's technology. The world changes every time. We should, at least, appreciate the roots of these advancements.
♥Andz
P.S.
For awesome Filipino stamp collectors out there,
check out Filipinas Stamp Collectors' Club's
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