Other people’s postage stamps ……. and the historian

 So, its nearly Christmas, which brings Christmas cards and other people’s postage stamps.

 

Nothing more exciting or profound, and the reason for the post is simply because I can …………..

 But there is a point.

 Sadly, in this electronic age, more of the family in Italy, Poland and Canada are beating postage backlogs and sending Christmas greetings down the line.

 Which is nice, quick, cheap, and reliable ……. but I think we lose something in the process.

Added to which not for the first time I have to reflect on how future historians will view our 21^st century love affair with ephemera, because however convenient using an email, Facebook Instagram or WhatsApp are, the messages are unlikely to be saved.

 And that means they are lost to the future, which reduces the possibility that a historian at the end of the century will have fewer letters, postcards or even documents to sift through and build a picture of an individual, or of how we lived.

 

Leading to that possible conclusion of future historians that the 21^st century was an illiterate and shadowy time.

 

Location; Italy and Belgium

 Pictures; other people’s postage stamps, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson