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Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

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Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#141
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I did also have kids so I wouldn't look so dodgy hanging around by the play equipment in the park, so it wasn't just as a means to speak to people ;)

Having a two year old, no one looks at me weird when I play with the duplo blocks at the local LEGO store.

Ha! I went to the Lego store once pre child and got excited about the advent calendars. The man next to me asked how old my child was, I had to admit that I didn't have one.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#142

I worked as a postman for a bit. I'd wake up at 0430, make a short commute, then sort letters into street/house number order for something like 3 hours. After the first few days this became mindnumbingly dull. It was obvious 90% of what I was about to deliver would go straight in the bin so all this drudgery wad largely pointless. For a while I worked in a pretty rough area (by UK standards, admittedly nowhere in the…

The price of sending mail must go up. It’s insane how much we subsidize junk being mailed around.

In the US, at least, the post office is entirely self funded. The junk mail actually subsidizes the “legitimate” mail.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#143
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of sending mail must go up. It’s insane how much we subsidize junk being mailed around.

In the US, at least, the post office is entirely self funded. The junk mail actually subsidizes the “legitimate” mail.

Wow, their financial statements are fascinating. I encourage anyone with an interest to take a look for themselves. Your statement is correct in that they do not directly receive cash from the government. However, they do borrow from the FFB at an insanely low rate of 1.785%, which one could consider a subsidy. It’s very interesting to note also that they have a legal maximum debt load of $15B which they are currently at. Their MD&A states that liquidity could soon become a huge issue. Management pretty much sums up the situation with this statement “legal restrictions on pricing, service diversification and operations restrict our ability to cover our costs to provide secure, reliable and affordable postal services to the nation.”

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#144
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to separate your work from your purpose. Think of work as merely collecting resources to maintain life. Get a hobby or volunteer at a charity and find purpose there. I've been much happier with putting my "self" into designing and testing board games. I forget about the dumpster fire after I leave and focus my energy on something I enjoy creating.

I'll go ya one better and say maybe forget your purpose entirely . Not in a negative, nihilistic way, but in kind of a Zenny way. You think Floyd here thinks about his purpose? Well actually it seems like he has decided "my purpose is to care for these people on my route," so maybe that's a bad example for my point. Although it's worth noticing, HE decided that. Which proves, it's totally arbitrary. Meaning is wherev…

How is being anxious at discovering an objective value for oneself (“meaning”) egotistical? If anything, it is an external reach out of the ego and away from doing whatever you want.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll go ya one better and say maybe forget your purpose entirely . Not in a negative, nihilistic way, but in kind of a Zenny way. You think Floyd here thinks about his purpose? Well actually it seems like he has decided "my purpose is to care for these people on my route," so maybe that's a bad example for my point. Although it's worth noticing, HE decided that. Which proves, it's totally arbitrary. Meaning is wherev…

How is being anxious at discovering an objective value for oneself (“meaning”) egotistical? If anything, it is an external reach out of the ego and away from doing whatever you want.

My thought process is a bit circular and paradoxical, I admit it. I also tried to be brief, which led to a long list at one point being truncated to the phrase "whatever you want" which might be misleading. My intent was more like "anything at all." In other words, meaning is everywhere. Even the post office. (Or it's nowhere, and that's ok too.)

Wanting your life to be meaningful is still you, caring about your life, that's the ego part. You can skip the whole meaning thing if you want, and just start doing things. I dunno, it helped me unblock myself.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is being anxious at discovering an objective value for oneself (“meaning”) egotistical? If anything, it is an external reach out of the ego and away from doing whatever you want.

My thought process is a bit circular and paradoxical, I admit it. I also tried to be brief, which led to a long list at one point being truncated to the phrase "whatever you want" which might be misleading. My intent was more like "anything at all." In other words, meaning is everywhere. Even the post office. (Or it's nowhere, and that's ok too.) Wanting your life to be meaningful is still you, caring about your life…

I understand the anxiety and the relief from abandoning a possibly unending and self-destructive task for "purpose", but it is exactly that energy which propels humans to do great things. But I agree, meaning can be everywhere.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#147
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story takes place in Atlanta. The metro area has something like 6 million people in it. Not a 'mega city' but also not a small town. Perhaps it's not the city that is causing the lack of community with neighbors?

This happens in Marietta which is a sizeable city but not Atlanta. It's outside of Atlanta like how Irvine is outside of LA. My family lives in Acworth an hour a way and there are chickens wandering people's yards. GA is a bit different in that regard.

FWIW, I live in east midtown and someone here is keeping chickens because I hear a rooster most mornings.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#148
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, at least, the post office is entirely self funded. The junk mail actually subsidizes the “legitimate” mail.

Wow, their financial statements are fascinating. I encourage anyone with an interest to take a look for themselves. Your statement is correct in that they do not directly receive cash from the government. However, they do borrow from the FFB at an insanely low rate of 1.785%, which one could consider a subsidy. It’s very interesting to note also that they have a legal maximum debt load of $15B which they are currentl…

Sounds like the days of self-funding through junk mail might be over?
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