The Postman's Post, Posted!

A day before New Year's eve, my brother and I were waiting for our mom's arrival by the gate upon her orders. We were ought to help her out in bringing the bundles of plastic bags full of stuff for the Media Noche preparation. Being the restless girl that I was, I tried to while away my time peering into and probing our mailbox, scooping (aside from dust and dirt) two of its only contents, and seeing to whom they were for. One was a a card from Unicef for our boarder (a conclusion I came at with the letter's outside appearance and info about Unicef written outside the envelope). My mom got something like this years ago. I wonder why Unicef did not give her a card this year. Oh well. It's not something I was compelled to devote my time pondering about.

What intigued me and elicited in me a childlike excitement was the other letter I found (recall that I saw two in the mailbox).The letter I was referring to was inside a small 5" by 3" brown envelope (much like the one wherein a worker's wage was contained a few decades back, back to our parents' teener days). I am now going to relay the words outside the envelope and inside the main 'letter' VERBATIM. The envelope had a stamped (in blue) "MERRY CHRISTMAS AND [a] HAPPY NEW YEAR" in the center, and also a stamped "FROM: POSTMAN ALLAN B. ADALLA" in its lower right corner. There was even a scribbled "ORTEGA & FAMILY" above the Christmas greeting. It had no stamp (obviously) and no seal on its flap. Upon opening the envelope, I saw a small white bond paper (1/8 of a whole sheet) cut rather creatively on its left and right edges (the edges had a zigzag design) with the following computerized words:

"To my addressee,

As Christendom and humanity celebrate the year's most important season, my family and I send you this very special greeting.
And of course to your family and love[d] ones, may the New Year bring you more happiness, success, good health and prosperity.
Merry Christmas and [a] Happy New Year.

Your regular Postman,
Allan B. Adalla"

I'm reminding you again for the nth time that the letter was copied verbatim. Believe me, I was staring at it in disbelief. Ang taray! Was it just 'our' postman who gave out notes like this to celebrate the holiday season? For heaven's sake! I didn't even know that we had a regular postman! I used to think that different mailmen brought different letters at our doorstep. I cannot even remember opening the gate for someone as Mr. Adalla. I'm a poor soul. As far as I know, it was only this year that we received something like it. It is just Amazing, spelled with a capital 'A'. I was baffled why my brother did not share the enthusiasm I had with this unexpected letter. Was it just me who never expected it? I don't know. Maybe, I am just an excitable little girl, excited by the least excitatory of the excitatory stuff there are. But it pays to be like that at certain times, doesn't it?

Even if I know that Mr. Adalla gave out notes like this not just to us but to all the families he serves, I still felt special in a way. I mean, he actually cared and bothered to do all these! Okay, maybe his wife also had her hand in doing these letters - let us be fair. That's why I felt a pang of guilt strike me alongside the exuberance I was feeling. Here I am, saying that I love to share, I love to give, blah blah, when in reality, I was not giving enough attention to the people who get my (not much) and my family's (really!) life moving. There are many other people, possibly, in your life and in mine too, we have neglected. Not knowing that without them, we are crippled. Not knowing that without them, we are nothing as well.

The letter was an eye opener literally, and of course, figuratively.

Our postman is sweet. I wish yours is too.

Share: "I'll wait for the postman to bring me a letter," a line from Lohan's latest song I do not really like, the title of which I cannot remember well (Duh, the title was too long! Why can't she choose a title like, er, "Balisong"?!) Wala lang, it just came to my mind with the topic of my entry. Hehe. =p Happy new year! It's the year of the Fire Dog pala. Swerte kaya yung may mga aso? What a stupid question.