Ray Hahn

Joy Is One Postcard Away

We all know the expression, “Into each life a little rain must fall.” We often say this in my household to rationalize the unexplained, but generally it is a meaningless complaint about some minor incident that has forced a change in plans.

With this adage in mind, please grant me a writer’s license to revise the words but keep the concept; to wit, “Into each postcard collection a little junk will appear.” Oh, com’on, I know it’s not funny, but it’s true and we all know it.

So here we are in the last week of March 2020 and our world is changing at speeds we can’t understand by a virus we didn’t know about a few weeks ago. The only places we’re allowed to go are grocery stores and doctor’s offices. So, where’s the fun in life?

The answer is in your postcard collection. Here’s what I want you to do. I know you have a pile of recently purchased postcards on your desk. Or, maybe you have two or three piles as I do. As soon as you finish reading this issue of Postcard History, join me in this therapeutic exercise. It’s easy to do, so if you wish, cut and paste the paragraph below, print it and use it right now, tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.

A Recipe for Joy
#1. Turn off your computer (or put it to sleep).
#2. Go find one of those piles of cards we just mentioned.
#3. Walk to a room you don’t usually take your postcards and sit down.
#4. Look at the card on the top of the pile. Study it if you wish, then … go on to step five.
#5. Ask yourself, “Which dealer sold me this card?” If you remember go on to step six.
#6. Ask yourself, “How much did I pay?” If you remember go to step seven.
#7. Ask yourself, “Why did I buy it?” If you remember go to step eight.
#8. Ask yourself, “Where does it belong in my collection?” If you know go to step nine.
#9. Get up and go put it where it belongs.
#10. Repeat until the pile disappears.

If at any point in this process, you don’t remember the answers to your own questions, that card should become part of your junk pile. At some time later today or tomorrow at the latest, send it to a member of your postcard club, or scan it and send it to Postcard History’s editor at editor@postcardhistory.net. Either way you will make someone happy and you’ll feel good too. I just might get one of our contributors to write a story about it. The writer will give you credit and then you’ll be famous.  

Changing plans is not painful, only inconvenient. So, I ask you, why not do this Happiness Exercise to cure your lockdown boredom?