When I was a kid I collected stamps...(LOL I still have them all!).... and people used to think I was nuts.... but I looked at each stamp and discovered that they told me a story, a story of time and change and progress and technology and geography and and and.... and from each stamp I learned just a little....I heard of far away islands with names like Montserrat and Naui, I discovered history of a great Commonwealth spanning the geography of Africa and Asia and the Americas...I could go on and on and on....I was fascinated by the things that people put on their stamps.... I learned about politics and trade. Although I kept all my stamps inside big albums, row upon row , I looked at them individually and thought of how each one should be individually framed and hung on a wall, individualised so that each could be studied and researched for its OWN meaning by the viewer. Again most people thought I was mad.
When I see a special stamp issued by one country or another to memorialise someone or something, I think about how significant that commemorated thing must be to earn its way onto a national stamp. But then I see the small bit of paper it is printed on and realise that most people never really look at the design, the fine craftsmanship, the art that is front of them, let alone look INTO the image and find out a bit more about that tiny reminder of something precious.
I hope that stamps never vanish from our world. The postal system may be cumbersome and expensive and to a degree inefficient in our world, but I think about the kids who will never have the chance or exposure to be so inspired if those tiny flashes of inspiration were to vanish. Never underestimate the impact the tiniest item has upon the mind of a child.
oldlincolnian
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