Save the Postal Service - Write More Letters

According to the New York Times, the United States Postal Service reported $15.9 billion dollars in losses in 2012.  Because of these high losses and continued operating expenses, the Postal Service recently announced that it would be ending Saturday first-class mail delivery.

So how could such a uniquely American institution like the United States Postal Service be reduced to a shadow of its former glory?  The answer is simple: we citizens have dropped the ball, both with the Postal Service and with each other.

The vast majority of people no longer send greeting cards, write snail mail letters, write checks and mail bill payments, and so on.  Instead we are left with a world in which my 13-year-old cousin has never even sent a handwritten letter to anyone in the duration of his short lifetime.

So what would it take to revive the Postal Service?  The answer to this question is equally clear and simple: send more mail!  Send holiday greeting cards, write an old friend, and mail your bill payments!

To show you how little effort it would really take to make a difference for the health and vitality of the United States Postal Service, let's do a little math:

1. Start with the U.S. Postal Service's $15.9 billion in losses in 2012.
2. Divide $15.9 billion by the population of the United States (308,745,538 people as of the 2010 census).  This yields a Postal Service deficit of approximately $51.50 per person per year.
3. Divide the individual per-person Postal Service deficit of $51.50 by the cost of a first class postage stamp (currently $0.46).  This yields the number of first-class items of mail, per person, in addition to whatever mail you currently send, required for the Postal Service to break even and be sustainable.  $51.50 divided by $0.46 equals approximately 112 pieces of first class mail per year.

There you have it, folks.  If every single person in the United States took it upon him or herself to send 112 additional pieces of first class mail per year, the Postal Service would once again be in the black.

I myself send well over 112 pieces of first class mail per year, mainly with Christmas cards and amateur radio QSL cards.  To up my own personal game with the Postal Service, I am once again going retro and mailing in my bills via Postal Service.

Try to find creative ways to use the Postal Service and add a touch of class to your interpersonal communication by sending a real letter, card, or postcard.  Find a pen pal in a foreign land and send some international snail mail.  I recently discovered the website postcrossing.com, which is a website allowing you to exchange random postcards with people from other countries all around the world.  You might make a new friend for life and maybe even learn something in the process.  If you are a parent, teach your children to write letters and thank-you notes the proper way.  The possibilities are endless if you use your imagination!

In conclusion, 112 additional pieces of mail, per person, per year, would save the Post Office and make it a stronger American institution than it has been in recent memory.  It's up to us, folks!  Don't let a few shortsighted government officials take away our core American infrastructure by chipping away at its most essential institutions.  And if you are looking for a reason to send a letter, shoot me an email requesting my address, and you can write to me about the many ways you disagree with my take on the Postal Service fiasco until the proverbial cows come home.

The Existential Freedom of Quitting a Dissertation

I have posted previously about my attempt to finish my dissertation for a Ph.D. in philosophy at UC Santa Cruz.  However, I recently decided not to pursue completion of my dissertation any longer, for several reasons.  For example:

• The time limit for completion of the degree is seven years, which will be up in March, 2013.
• In January I would need to pay tuition for one quarter, out of pocket, to re-enroll and file for the degree (a hefty $6,000 sum).
• Although I have been working on the dissertation steadily over the years, it has been difficult to devote more than a few hours a week (on a good week!) to my dissertation work.
• After a frank discussion with my advisers, we all agreed that I am unable to devote the necessary time to work on the dissertation, in light of my other work commitments for Aplia and Cengage Learning.
• Frankly, I have always been a better teacher of philosophy than an actual philosopher; teaching will always be my first love over research.

So what does it mean to quit a dissertation, either for me personally or in general?  First, quitting a dissertation is something of an identity crisis for me, both because I have devoted so much time and emotional energy to attempting to get a Ph.D. and because I have created a personal narrative or script about myself around that goal: "I'm Zachary Fruhling, the Ph.D. candidate."  Now I am "Zachary Fruhling, the M.A." and "Zachary Fruhling, the Senior Content Developer." (Here is the list of degree recipients from the philosophy department at UC Santa Cruz: UCSC Philosophy Department Graduate Student Placement Record)

Although it was a difficult decision for me to quit my dissertation, it is certainly the right move for me.  For too long I have tried to ride two saddles, working on a Ph.D. and being a senior content developer working on digital course materials for Aplia and Cengage Learning.  In reality, I also ride many other saddles: husband, homeowner, friend, family member, Christian, and so on.  To put it bluntly, my dissertation was interfering with my ability to be fully present in these other roles and commitments.

As for the self-narrative, I am trying to remind myself that quitting my dissertation is not so much a failure on my part as it is a natural consequence of a choice in priorities I made several years ago in choosing to focus on teaching and publishing instead of prioritizing my dissertation work.  Since I have been successful in every other area, it would be fool-hearty of me to dwell on this decision as a failure in any way.  I am paid well to continue to work in my chosen field, I recently purchased a house in my beloved hometown of Vacaville, CA (near my family and near my dearest old friends), and many, many students nationwide are using course materials that I have produced for their philosophy courses (Aplia for Philosophy), which is a much wider net for quality education than I was able to cast in my own courses with just a handful of students at a time.

To sum it up, quitting your dissertation can be an existentially freeing decision if your priorities have changed and if you are successful in other areas of your life.  While it is virtuous to finish what you started, it is foolish to ignore the currents, trends, and movements in your life, if they are leading you in another direction.


And here is some recommended reading if you are struggling to finish your dissertation:

Buying a House, or "Twilight of the Idols"

Well, it's official, I have placed an offer on two houses in my hometown of Vacaville, CA. In preparation, I have begun selling off some possessions for the sake of padding my bank account balance for the closing costs, down payment, deposit, and so on.

Purchasing a house forces you to think long-term and to have clear priorities. For example, I am selling my prized DVD boxed set of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which I would never have considered selling a year ago. Of course, since then, the various incarnations of Star Trek have become available for instant streaming on Netflix, so the DVDs are not as necessary as they have been in the past. But it is possible to think of the Star Trek DVDs as a symbol, an idol of sorts, a testament to the priorities of a younger and more frivolous former self.

Granted, I will probably purchase the soon-to-be-released Blu-Ray edition of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the short-term tradeoff of my beloved Star Trek collection for the sake of long-term stability and owning my own house is a wise financial decision.

Besides, owning my own house will allow me to focus on some of my other interests and passions in life, such as vegetable gardening and raising backyard chickens. So perhaps it is not the Twilight of the Idols after all, for new idols and priorities ebb and flow with the seasons and years in the course of a human lifetime.