i've got mail

When we were in grade school, my brother and I had newspaper routes. On Sundays, one of my parents (usually, my mother) would drive us around our routes.


It was more efficient to run portions of the route.


I still remember the feeling of those crisp mornings and hitting a running stride where each stride felt like pure joy.


I am beginning to feel that way about this move to Mexico. If this were a steeplechase, I would have tripped over a few fences and slipped in a pond or two.


But Friday I knew things were going to be all right.


I drove to Manzanillo for a followup appointment with Jiggs's veterinarian. Jiggs's legs passed muster, but the veterinarian wants to see him in two weeks to excise two growths.


While Jiggs was getting a bath, I stopped by Mailboxes, etc. to see if I had any mail. I did.


In fact, I had a huge packet of mail -- as you can see in the photograph at the top of the blog.


During the early 1970s, I lived in Greece for a year. Telephone connections in those days were not good, at least, in my part of Greece. But they were expensive.


My sole umbilical with friends and family was a small postal box. I literally lived for the moment every day when the mail would be placed in the boxes, and I could retrieve the flotsam and jetsam that floated my way from across the Atlantic.


I felt exactly the same way when the clerk handed me that huge packet. Because I pay for the box by weight, I knew this would be an expensive care package.


A large portion of the contents was the type of mail that makes its way from the box to the trash can with hardly a glance. Well, that is what would happen at home. With this mail, I opened everything and looked at it -- even the cruise brochures.


But there were true treasures. Magazines and newspapers.

I have managed to avoid most news stories for the past two months. My sabbatical is over. I now have two months of reading -- and the regular flow should start soon.


Last Sunday, our church congregation discussed what it means to seek justice in a society where we are expatriates. I think I now have a better answer.


In one of my Salvation Army newspapers, I found an answer for me. The Salvation Army is starting an initiative on social justice through an International Social Justice Commission.


The commission's eight goals are immense:

1. End hunger and extrme poverty
2. Universal education
3. Gender equality
4. Child health
5. Maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
7. Environmental sustainability
8. Global partnership

OK. It sounds highly idealistic. But the Salvation Army is not known for aiming low.


Getting involved with the commission may be exactly what I need to get my full stride in retirement. Everything on that list is an issue that my Mexican neighbors face -- some more than others.


That packet brought great news -- and perhaps a way for me to truly hit my retirement stride.