Post Post Office Ramblings, aka "The Milkshake Made Me Do It"

Two full weeks and one day later, I turned in my badge and quit the postal service. I promptly purchased a celebratory milkshake at Sheetz along with a few Reese's cups, and for that I apologize to you, my voluntary audience. Judge me gently for what follows - there is no plan, and I'm on a sugar high like you've never seen.

Before this summer when I thought of the USPS, I don't know what came to mind. Definitely the cranky lady who delivers our mail - it's not our fault that Zelienople denied our plea to be part of their city - and a lot of bored-looking clerks sitting behind counters. Maybe the mailman from Christy, he always made me smile...

"Beautiful, ain't it! Just been told us by the gov-ment in Washington. Now looky here, I figure that if rain or snow, nor none of those things are meant to stay us couriers, then we shorely can't have no gal-woman stayin' us."

Nothing I've ever seen prepared me for the "Logistics and Distribution Center." I know that shows my age and inexperience, because my father isn't at all surprised when I describe the machines we work with. Maybe some of you would be surprised, too, if you walked into that rush and clatter. Semi trailers docking, unloading, loading, and departing at more than 60 doors are just the beginning - five sorting machines, and an army of people just like us either feeding machines or sorting packages manually. I've gained an appreciation and healthy respect for conveyor belts, one that grows every time I finish a shift.

So my world has been made a little bigger, in the most basic sense, by this little brush with industry. Did you know that it costs less to ship almost anything through the Post Office than any of the other shipping companies? True story. I've learned a lot of other things, too...

For example, I always thought that when Quentin Tarantino put language in his films, he was being hyperbolic. People don't actually cuss that much, right? WRONG. They really, really do. They swear when they're upset, when they want you to do something differently, when they're frustrated, tired, stressed, or injured.

They also swear when they're happy, in the middle of normal conversations, when they're joking, indifferent, or have nothing better to do. It's ridiculous.

Then there's unions. I've watched North and South and I'm pretty well-read in Pittsburgh's history - I have half an idea of why unions exist and, even, why they're important. I'm grateful that union labor regulations require the post office to give us 15 minute breaks every two hours and a half-hour lunch (even if it is off the clock). What I don't understand is... well, everything else about them. And how casual employees survive as long as some of them do - we do roughly twice the work at half the pay, with no hope of improving our position and desperate not to be fired.

Of course, you also have to be careful, because there are two ways to yourself kicked out - not working enough, or working too hard. The best advice that I should have followed earlier in my casual employee career was "Sometimes working smart means working dumb." There's no way we're a threat to union jobs, but if a regular decides they don't like you they will make your life hell.

Oh the things I could say... but I'm coming off that high and realizing how pointless this post is. So what's the deal? What's the moral of this story?

First, never assume you know what you're getting into. When in doubt, don't ask a supervisor, ask another casual so you can look dumb together. Never volunteer for extra hours, because if they don't keep you today, they'll keep you tomorrow. Don't pull the mask off the Lone Ranger, and never, never, eat off of the break room table.

The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote...

It's a bit late in the game to be writing this, but among the lessons I have learned at the Post Office is one about Christmas. And I am starting this with 12 minutes left in that blessed day, so I consider myself justified in attempting it, at the very least.

I have been known, among family and close friends, as a Grinch. In some ways it is a wonder that certain of my friends are still my friends, considering their devotion to the holiday. I am fine with the idea of Christmas, particularly when riding the cheery wave of Thanksgiving celebrations, but as the day draws closer I become grouchy and unhappy, and thus much more difficult to live with. I have many excuses for this behavior, but I'll only give you a few:

I have sometimes chosen to explain that I am disappointed by the blatant materialism of the holiday as most of us celebrate it, buying things that no one really needs and that they could just as easily buy for themselves (or that they will exchange so they can buy that other thing they really want). We treat it as everybody's birthday: it's very expensive, and the only people who really benefit are those in marketing.

 Or, I could say that the expectations stress me out. Christmas is supposed to be a cheerful time, full of time-honored traditions and merry-making with friends. Traditions and "merry-making" do not translate into our culture so well - we all want to have all of the traditions and negotiating the making of "merry" with friends with different schedules who are likewise involved in the keeping of all traditions is far too difficult. To top it off, the expectation of cheerfulness makes my sin nature rear up and say, "What? Cheerful? Well, now I'll be the farthest thing from it. On principle."

Finally, what is up with the music? 94.5FM plays only Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving until the New Year, and while I appreciate their devotion, I swear there are only 20 Christmas songs in the whole world. They are all cheerful. They all talk about traditions that most of us don't have but wish we did (Yule Logs, White Christmas, a real life belief in Santa Clause, or the ubiquitous "sleigh-ride" that no longer has a wide-spread cultural context), which contributes to the stress mentioned in my last example.

On a more personal note, Christmas songs are all about the good old days and the people that we remember. I don't like to miss people. I want them to be here with me. Auld Lang Syne - since when is that a cheerful song? I don't want to miss "auld acquaintance," I don't want them to be gone in the first place.

So. That's the sort of thing I say. I admit I did some grinching this year, and I'm sure my friends and co-workers could give you some great examples, but working at the post office changed that a bit for me.

It's strange that transitioning from school to the night shift at a distribution center could do it. To be honest, when I took the job I breathed a sigh of relief - if I was working 72hr. weeks (as I was told I would be), I could take the holiday in small doses and hide from it when I wanted to. I felt that way right up until my second shift, when I saw the first package covered in colorful paper with the North Pole as the return address. And then the next day I got to do a manual sort - Christmas cards galore, from real people to real people. Lots of mail to APO addresses (that is, military mail), international packages, oddly shaped packages, coconuts from Hawaii pretending to be real packages.


In case you're wondering, you should never put Santa as the return addressee. I have seen too many packages go into limbo because of incomplete or torn addresses and an illegitimate return address. 

It is odd to think that this job, where anonymity is the name of the game, is the one that made me want to spend time with the people who know me, no matter how much stress comes along with it. The postal service is pretty darn quick - inspired by the mail I was sorting, I bought Christmas cards for some of my best friends, wrote notes in them during breaks, and mailed them two days before the big day, fairly sure that they would make it in time - but the extra time, the extra thought required to buy, package, mail, and be on time gave me some hope for this country and our traditions.

I haven't renounced Grinching altogether, and I probably won't until someone decides to write the modern equivalent of the sleigh song and put it to a melancholy tune, but I have made an effort to look for the opportunities in the holiday instead of the deficiencies. So far it's working, and I'm taking advantage of my day off to be with the people I love.

Merry Christmas, to my readers, my non-readers, and the people who play Springstein's version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on the radio ad nauseum. It's not about the stuff, it's not about the cheer, it's about the people. Start a new tradition, one that's about words and time and hours spent "unproductively." It will do wonders for your holiday experience.

Musings from the Post Office

Happy December 22nd from the United States Post Office! That's right, my Christmas break plans included rejoining the ranks of "casual" postal employees. It's a bit of a disappointing transition from the rush and bustle of finals week - along with all its celebration and study and friendship - to the rattle and hum of a distribution center, but my bank account and future plans tell me that it's necessary.

Every time I get off an 8...9...12 hour shift I have to give myself a little pep talk about resigning my appointment, as in, convincing myself I shouldn't. Tempting as it is to turn in my badge and spend two weeks doing nothing, I have to remember that this is valuable, not only because it pays better than anything else I could be doing over break, but because of the things I learn from it.

For instance, just yesterday as I was talking myself out of quitting it occurred to me that I really am spoiled. My little sister says I work too much, and I'll admit that the transition from a school day to the night shift was ill-conceived, but at the same time... this is what real people do. Real people have real jobs that don't end the second week of December and resume in mid-January, with nothing between but reading and cookie-making. Real people put in hours when they would rather be at home loving their families or soaking their aching feet or planning Christmas shopping. Real people have to say "no" to good things on a daily basis because there is less appealing life stuff that must be done - and I shouldn't hide from being a real person.

I got off my shift early today and thus found myself wandering around Walmart at 3am hoping I would be struck by brilliant gift ideas. I didn't get any, unfortunately, but I was struck by the number of employees that were also there at 3am, restocking shelves and sweeping isles. Here in America our standards for customer service are pretty high, and I wonder how often we overlook the people who are right there, doing the things that must be done - especially during the holidays. They're men and women made in the image of God and doing their best.

 I tried to pretend I wasn't there (difficult, when I was one of five customers in the whole store) and stayed out of their way, but I couldn't help but think that they and I were both suffering through the same graveyard shift experience. I looked down at my painting jeans and work shirt, evenly covered with "priority dust" and realized that I'm not anything special because I'm in grad school. I'm just a Walmart employee. I'm just a postal employee. I'm just a member of the working class... and I could show them a little more respect. Maybe you could too?

In the beginning

Nothing interesting has popped up from the Washington Post (not personally interesting, anyway) except for the news that "Donald Trump fires himself as his own debate moderator." Thank goodness for that, but was it really alert-worthy? Therefore, this may be a shocking change of pace, but I wanted to make some comments on the Bible. I'm in a recently started Bible study with some other Higher Ed girls and we've decided to go through the Gospel of John, one chapter a week.

A few semesters ago I took a class with Dr. Shidemantle on the Gospel of John, so it is a different experience for me: each week I feel both informed and unprepared, because the more I "know" about the book or chapter, the more aware I am that my self-sufficient attitude needs to be checked at the door. Or at the Italian leather binding. I want to record some of my new insights, the things I notice this time around, and I hope that anyone who reads this will be encouraged.

The Gospel of John
First, it is helpful to know that although this book is traditionally believed to have been written by the Apostle John (who also wrote the three epistles of John and the Revelation), he is never identified in the text. The closest the author comes to mentioning himself is with the phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved." We accept the authorship of the Apostle because of the strength of church tradition, but also because of some of the literary styles and themes within the text.

Second, a reader should pay attention to a few themes in the text. One is the juxtaposition of life and death - Jesus is shown to be and offer a life that is more than tissue, bone and fluid, which he gives freely. Another is the importance of signs in this gospel - several of Jesus' miracles are specifically identified as "signs," and each can be matched with a specific discourse where Jesus makes the greater purpose of that sign more clear to his followers. Finally, imagery in the text repeatedly presents traditional Jewish worship and shows Jesus fulfilling the promises and symbols so pervasive to the religion.

This gospel is believed to have been written between 60-80AD. Some claim that John was predicting the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and others that he was writing in its aftermath. Either way, it is clearly an evangelical book and targeted at Jews who were (or soon would be) confused about the end of their traditional temple worship structures. This persuasive purpose is found in John 20:30-31

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (NIV)

John 1
The prologue (1:1-18) is poetic and therefore always hits my emotions pretty hard, but this time the emotional impact carried throughout the chapter. The prologue begins with the well-known phrase "In the beginning," recalling the dramatic introduction to the book of Genesis. With regard to the themes I mentioned, all three are found in the prologue: we are told that "the Word" (Jesus) is both light and life, true light and truth. We are told that through "the Word" we have received one blessing after another, not the least of these the disclosing of his glory through the incarnation and other miraculous signs. Finally, we are told that "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (1:14); the phrase "made his dwelling" could also be translated "he tabernacled" among us, recalling the wilderness era temple and offering "the Word" as a living substitute for that structure. The rest of the chapter jumps right into the story, where we hear from John the Baptist (who was introduced in the prologue), meet Jesus, and watch Jesus call his first disciples.

These are all the sorts of things that I knew coming into the reading of this passage. This time as I read it, what really struck me was the timing of it all. The very fact that this gospel has a prologue informs one that John wrote with a knowledge of the end. He, and some of those he writes to, have personal experience with the rest of the story - this is clear from verse 16: "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another." We are reminded why we care about one man's story, or why we should care, if we do not: because Jesus' story is not the story of one man but the repetition of a call as old as time and a vision as beautiful as the first sunrise: full of grace and truth.

I'm a sucker for a good epic. I can admit that books like The Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of Time series can catch and hold my attention for hours at a time because I love to follow characters through their interaction with the ancient and sacred in search of purpose. John's prologue does this for me as well. But there is more to it than a simple epic, and the moment we are invited to take part in is more than one more character's realization of the small part they play in history. "The Word became flesh" in a specific moment. Grace and truth and the face of God were made known to us in a specific time and place and no one but Jesus could have been that person - Jesus' life is the turning point in history, and that is why we care to read this.

Going forward (in the chapter) to the more literal, historical testimony of John the Baptist and the call of the disciples, that ancient desire for transcendence and purpose is still there. The Baptist's self-description come from an ancient prophet (Isaiah): "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord'" (John 1:23), and he describes Jesus using sacrificial Old Testament imagery when he calls him "the Lamb of God." But their relationship - John the Baptist and Jesus' - is the most striking one. The Baptist says "This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me'" (1:30). Jesus and the Baptist were cousins, and even before he was born the Baptist recognized the presence of his Lord in Mary's womb. Their history and God's revelation enabled the Baptist to loudly proclaim that the past and the future were melded and completed in this man, this God-made-known.

So Jesus has been identified as the one who is eternal, who was from the beginning and is here to make God's face known. This prior knowledge extends to the people he would call as his disciples. He knows what they want to know in addition to what they ask about. We are told that he found Phillip, and that he knew where Nathanael was before he arrived. Each of the disciples receives their savior's invitation (or call) in a personal way, even if some of them do not understand - how long was it between Jesus' renaming of Simon (to Cephas, or "rock") and his statement in Matthew 18 that "on this rock I will build my church"?

So what?
I love the literary power of this book, its repetition and the themes that have begun to weave their way through it. There is so much more that I could say about each section and each verse, but I want to give myself and you, my readers, a chance to respond. What do you think?

While it is beautiful - and good for my soul - to remember that Jesus was the turning point of a history that has a beginning (and eventually an end), how do I respond to it? The greatest struggle for me, and possibly for some of you, is that this is reminder of the knowledge of God - do you see how well Jesus knew his disciples, before he met them? This is true for us as well. He knows everything about us, the most hidden sins and insecurities, and if you focus on that it can be terrifying.

But that's not where our focus should be. Do you think that John chose to tell this story this way so that we would be constantly reminded that there's nowhere to hide and therefore paralyzed in fear? Certainly not! Remember that Jesus knew ahead of time the doubts and sins of his disciples and, knowing those things he chose them anyway. It was not for the perfect that the Word became flesh, but for love. Grace and truth came so that we could receive one blessing after another instead of wallowing in our own fear.

What do you think?

LGBT: Is it really our job?

I just got a news alert from the Washington Post online, a publication that I was encouraged to begin reading as a part of a political science requirement during college. This most recent alert was a link to an article: "Obama orders U.S. diplomats to increase efforts to fight LGBT discrimination abroad." The article doesn't provide much commentary except to say that President Obama is strengthening his argument that he "has done more to end the ostracism experienced by the LGBT community, at home and abroad, than his predecessors."


I get that President Obama wants support in the next election, and I believe that violence against any person because of differences in belief or behavior is wrong. However, I have to ask, why is it our country's job, or our ambassadors' job, to take on this issue in other countries? Or, if we're going to talk about changing other countries' justice systems ("combat the criminalization"), why must we specify that those helped belong to the LGBT community? Is there some principle that gives us the right to interfere on this community's behalf instead of any other marginalized community?


In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that would probably be considered politically conservative, although I tend toward the libertarian viewpoint - our government has too many fingers in too many pies, and it really doesn't seem to be fixing much. If this is true in our own country, where the struggle with racial violence and extreme economic need is far from over, how much do we really believe we can - or should - do in other countries? And based on the American experience with government policies enforced through bureaucracy, why was this memo "immediately celebrated by gay and lesbian leaders" as if words on a paper (or email) are enough to begin real change?


It seems to me that although President Obama's memo may indicate a genuine desire to help oppressed and marginalized people "at home and abroad," it also reveals his assumption that the American people can be distracted. By a memo. Is this serious? Why is a memo to international ambassadors enough to be called a "political news alert"? Probably because reporting on the ABSOLUTE SILENCE surrounding so many other issues wouldn't be sensationalist enough for our news media. Maybe we should make it so. Make a noise for the problems that aren't trendy enough to make it on the evening news.


But that's a whole new set of soap-boxes. The questions I have are these: Are we convinced that it is our job to change the culture of other countries, and if so, why would we choose this one group instead of so many others? Can the American people really not see that words put on a page by a politician always have a double meaning? There is so much more that is always left unsaid.


Of all of the things that we could do, is this really our job?