The Postcardist: Recent Episodes
The Postcardist
There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.
Frank Hebert
The Postcardist Podcast: February 2, 2018 to February 23, 2023
This is where we stop the story.
I talked with Melissa Reed about postcards, letter writing, and how she has accumulated 12,000 postcards at her house in Italy. And she wants to send them to people.
Maggie and I talk about her prolific set of postcard designs at Travel Trinkets Canada. We, of course, also talk about Albert Pickle the 3rd, her very handsome Basset Hound, who is featured in a recent collection.
You can find Travel Trinkets Canada on Etsy by clicking here. And you can find Magda’s work on Instagram here. And as a bonus, you can see what I was saying about Albert dancing to the beat of his own drum by clicking here.
We talk about Albert in his hat on this postcard seriesWho’s a good boy, Albert?
Jamo went from a collection that started with four Pokemon cards to more than four hundred. Fast. And he knows a lot about collectibility. I talk to him about it. And then I have a few notes from my recent time on the road.
What’s the worst postcard you ever got? And can you top the story Nina tells about hers? In this episode I’m joined by Nina Lakusta, the proprietor of the postcard and ephemera store LakuStash. We talk about her postcard designs, driving lessons, illustration, and yes, the world’s worst postcard. You can find Nina on Instagram...
I ordered two sets of Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Postcards in July. And then I kept looking at looking at the AWA Instagram site, anticipating the U.S. release of those cards on October 11. Yes, I knew the date. This was exciting stuff. Guess what? As soon as I saw the postcards I knew I...
Every postcard has a story. That’s what writer and historian Kenneth J. Weiss says about his postcard collection. In this episode, Ken tells us about his Midrust Postcard Project and tells stories about several cards he has. And we talk about baseball cards. You can find Ken’s writing and work at KennethJWeiss.com. And on Instagram...
In which I talk about World Postcard Day 2022; question why I have so many blank postcards; and an idea I have about being Johnny Tomatoseed. And here’s the official postcard for WPD 2022.
Stamps. And postcards. And connections. Thats’s what Ale the Philatelist and I talked about on this show. Ale collects stamps. You’ll have to hear her story about building an art installation using blue stamps she sourced from people she connected with around the world. She also collects postcards. And makes friends. This is a show...
The work that Marti Mills and Sylvanus Paul are doing with Santa Fe Sticker Fest is really interesting. And there’s a postcard link. Do you add stickers to your postcards? After this thought-provoking show, you will. You can submit stickers for the curated collection by sending them to: You can find Santa Fe Sticker Fest...
What are the odds anyone is going to read an email 50 years from that you wrote about a trip you took this year? But what if you wrote details in letters and postcards? The odds go up considerably. Ana Padovani, the writer of Cartas y Postales is doing just that: looking at a series...
Did I ever tell you about that time OG called me under cover of the night and said “I’m just waiting on a friend” in a mysterious voice when I asked what was happening. Never one to miss out on an Adventure with OG, I hopped out of bed, ran a comb across my head,...
Imagine me at the Platzl Hotel in Munich this past Sunday. I had just wrapped up the European swing of the Peace, Love & Postcards World Tour and I thought I’d cool my heels in Bavaria. Plus, it was a special day. I checked with the front desk to see if I had any messages...
Did you ever see the Monty Python skit called Naughty Bits? That show used to make me laugh. The essence of the skit was there were things they couldn’t say or show on television in the 1970s, so every time the troupe wanted to do a blue joke they’d say, now for more naughty bits....
Even though we participate in the slow communication genre, there are new ways to learn about postcards and postcard history in new media. I’ve curated a few videos for you to watch that give a look at postcard history. (Plus a couple fun ones to add a little spice to our lives.) Last evening the...
When I think about titles for stories, I often have a song pop in my head. I dare you to resist dancing along to this song. I did a little dancing when by some coincidence these three whale postcards arrived in my mailbox. Thanks so much to Nikita Regina, Anne, and Dave. When I got...
When a set of postcards started arriving at my house over the course of a week from Atelier Jean d’Eaux, I knew I was in for a mystery. The artist gained notice initially for sending sets of cards cut from record albums to chefs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That set off a series of articles by...
It’s 2003. OG and I just finished our 13-hour shift painting a giant mural of the world’s largest lobster on the side of Lobster Shack, when my flip phone rings. I look at the caller ID: European Space Agency. I answer. “You’ve been chosen,” the caller says. “We’ve been chosen,” I yell to OG from...
Magda sent me a gift of new sets of designs she created to add to the very impressive body of work at Travel Trinkets Canada. I’m proud to say I have all the cards Magda has created. It’s not often a person can say they have a compete set in a collection. I now have...
I was having a Dr. Doolittle moment when I looked at this set of incoming postcards. They all feature animals — and some very good stories. Plus, now I’m singing along to a song from long ago. Isn’t it amazing we can recall lyrics we haven’t heard in years?
Look at the va-va-voom on this Fabulous Queen of the Land and Sea. This Little Mermaid has a Biggie attitude. Betsy called her Hariel; a combination of Hairy Sasquatch and Ariel. This one who’s working to strike the pose can exist as a siren who lures sailors to their watery graves, and reign as the...
I’d like my spirit animal to be a tiger, even If it’s more likely my spirit animal is a sloth. These incoming cards make me wanna be a tiger even more. Hey, if I quote William Blake’s The Tyger will I earn more tiger energy? Funny side note: I once spent an entire day at...
Today is Mardi Gras. Or Carnival. Ever been to one of those celebrations? Did you get beads? Eat a King Cake? Wear a carnival mask in Venice?
I got postcards. Let the good times roll.
Bourbon Street in the Before Days (Justin P.) A Lantern Press celebrating NOLA (Louise) Another one from NOLA (Justin P.) Some people might be a little put off by Mardi Gras shenanigans (Dave) Albert looks ready to let the good times roll (Magda) And if you’d a movie to watch on this day, how about Dennis Quaid as Remy McSwain and Ellen Barkin as Anne Osborne in The Big Easy. It includes one of the hottest two lines ever said on screen after an awkward encounter with a lot of bashfulness.
Anne: That’s okay. I never did have much luck with sex anyway.
Remy: Your luck’s about to change, cher.
This is quite a Sasquatch Sunday. I’ve added several items to The World’s Largest Bigfoot Postcard Collection this week, including Pie Grande, the first postcard I have of Bigfoot named in Spanish. (Muchas gracias a Daniel por esta postal de Pie Grande desde Cancun, México.)
It’s funny, collecting Bigfoot cards started out as a lark. It was one of those things where I noticed I had a burgeoning selection of cards with that theme. Then that theme built and built and built. And now I have albums upon albums of Bigfoot postcards and ephemera. I’ve even made podcasts about Biggie, like this one with Jamo, and this one where I talk about my pocket-sized grandfather.
I’d say if you want to create a collection — or a theme of anything on postcards — start with a single card. And declare it so. Start looking. Noticing. Commenting on cards with your theme. And then one day you wake up and find yourself with what could be a world-class collection of postcards. As the saying goes: The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today.
Have a Biggie day.
Pie Grande enjoys Cancun on this Chibi Gutierrez-designed card. (from Daniel) That Amber Marimba stamp and hand cancellation make this one extra cool. Check out these kids playing marimba in Oaxaca, Mexico. I think I need a carved Bigfoot in my office like they have in front of Pacific Crust Pizza Company. (from Rich) Rich added this extra stamp on the back of this TouchNote card. Biggie and I both like pizza. Coincidence? There’s Biggie playing peek-a-boo. Do you see him? (from The Lost Postcard Bandit) The Lost Postcard Bandit cooked up this terrific #WhereIsBigfoot hashtag. This is a postcard I bought from the Royal Canadian Mint that includes an actual coin encased in it. Even Biggie takes selfies from above like his friends, the Kardashians. The Missing Link Bigfoot. Yeti. Sasquatch. They’re all family. (from Rachel)
It’s always interesting to look at incoming postcards in the collective. To examine them from different levels of observation. (Reminds me a a bit like the Charles and Ray Eames film Powers of Ten.) When you stand back and look a while, and have the breathing space to do it without IG tugging at your shirtsleeve, patterns emerge.
Today’s pattern is Strong Women.
I recently wrote a piece called In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream. I featured a postcard of a Storm Trooper in a dirndl that was sent to me by JoAnn. Which led to JoAnn sharing the story with the designer — and to her sending me a gift of five terrific postcards from Allen’s Halsey’s Strong Women Series. You can find Allen on IG with the very clever handle Probably Not Emma Watson. And you can find his other work at InPrint. (I wasn’t able to find a direct link to his postcards, but I’ll keep looking and update this story when I find something. I will say the cards are printed very nicely — velvet touch matte coatings on the front give a really nice hand feel.)
In addition to the Strong Women Series, I also noted I have a few other terrifically strong women on postcards to add to this piece. The Mae Jemison card sent by Betsy is from a box set from Timbuktu Labs called Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 50 Postcards of Women Creators, Leaders, Pioneers, Champions, and Warriors. Plus, I added the Fannie Lou Hamer card from Lisa.
And Marilyn. Well, Marilyn. She needs only one name. And that quote I appended to the card with her on it. So was so good.
Here’s to the strong women out there. That’s you. Rock on. Looking for a Friend Irish Stormy C The Tie That Binds Strong women don’t have attitudes, we have standards. — Marilyn Monroe (from Debbie) Fannie Lou Hamer card (designed by Postcards by Lisa) Mae Jemison, Astronaut & Doctor by Timbuktu Labs (from Betsy) Please Consider Subscribing to The Postcardist Blog. If you’d like to see more posts like this, please consider subscribing to The Postcardist. You can choose how often you’d like to be updated — right away, once a day, or weekly. Just fill in your email address below. I promise I won’t send you any other email. I’m into postcards.
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A Postcard Moment of Zen
No need to hurry. No need to sparkle.
No need to be anyone but yourself.Virginia Woolf
I saw that statement by Virginia Woolf this morning on Inspiring Quotes. Seeing it prompted me to walk away from war coverage TV for a few minutes and look at a set of recently arrived postcards. That act alone gave me a moment to pause. Breathe. A moment of zen. There’s no one unifying theme here except that the cards slowed me down.
There is something particular about postcards (and letters) from others. It’s a message that we’re all in this together. Take a little stroll with me and enjoy some pretty postcards for a few minutes. No hurry. No need to sparkle. Just be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn; then be a unicorn.
A small Blue Marble in the vastness of space (Rachel) A Killdeer in Calgary (Maggie) A Ulysses Butterfly in Queensland (Jill) A field of Irises from Immersive Van Gogh (Tammi) A Bridge Over Untroubled Water (Kristen) A Fannie Lou Hamer image (Postcards By Lisa) An art piece called Approaching Circumstance by Clarence Morgan (Justin) Year of the Tiger with my name written in Japanese (Teresa) Handmade Valentine (Katrinka) A delimiter strip can make all the difference (Nikita) And always have a tea. (Teas tasted tested by Nikita)
I was 10 years old when 400,000 people went to Max Yasgur’s farm and hung out for three days of Peace, Love, and Music. But I listened to many of the songs over and over again when my friend Paulie’s older brother bought the Woodstock album in 1971 and blasted it on his porch. My dad hated it. I loved it. Check out this three-day set list to see what a wow the music was. Also, if you love music and that Summer of Love, I’d highly recommend the Woodstock documentary that was released in 2019.
What got me thinking about Woodstock? This postcard and pin published by Bethel Woods Center and sent to me from that historic site. Here’s a direct link to the 35 postcards they sell.
Anne from Postmark’d Studio went to Woodstock recently and sent this super cool card. If you want a laugh today, check out the misheard lyrics to this song. This pin is attached to the postcard. I want to get a surplus Army jacket and pin it on there. Two of my favorite stamps ever were part of this package — John Lennon and Woodstock Rocks on Forever
I have lots of phrases I say repeatedly, sometimes out of context. One I say is, “I got a rock.” I say it when we’re opening presents on Christmas morning. Someone else will say, “I got a sweater.” And another will say, “I got a video game.” And without fail I’ll say, “I got a rock.” There’s a reason why I say it (besides being my annoying self).
I absolutely loved Charlie Brown specials when I was a kid. I especially liked It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. That show is about Linus waiting in the pumpkin patch for The Great Pumpkin to arrive. While Linus waits, the Peanuts go trick-or-treating. And at each house, the kids reveal what they got.
I got a candy bar. I got three cookies. I got a rock.
That last one was Charlie Brown at every house. All the other kids got goodies. Charlie Brown got a rock.
Since I say I got a rock all the time, that’s what came to me when I looked at this set of incoming cards. But I said it with delight. I GOT A ROCK! Check these out. There’s a rock theme. Rock on.
Twin tunnels blasted out of sheer rock at Lake Tahoe’s Cave Rock Blaize sent this card with some impressive rocks from the Salinas Pueblo Missions Valery visited this impressive rock on her travels to Lake Baikal Here’s another kind of rock from Jim — Peltier’s Marbles (I used to collect marbles and still have some) Teresa sent this Ansel Adams photo of Utah’s Rainbow Bridge (that’s a big rock) Devin says Stonehenge rocks. So does this round postcard, Devin. Last little nugget: My last name — Roche — means rock in French. Yeah, I’m a little bit rock-n-roll.
Imagine your Grade 4 social studies teacher comes into class one day with a question: What if we tried to get postcards from all over the world? And then she did.
That’s what teacher Stephanie Nadeau did at her Labrador Straits Academy in L’Anse au Loup, which is on the southern tip of Labrador, Canada.
Ms. Nadeau, as he students call her, set out a social media post in November 2021 that got it going.
The students would love to get more postcards from around the world And the cards started coming in. Orla Hegarty posted an appeal to an international audience, and I know lots of people who sent cards (I did…and so did my grandson, Jamo). By the time the CBC did an interview with Stephanie that was published on January 23, 2022, the class had already received more than 100 postcards from around the world. And that number grew after the publication of that article.
Here’s a display wall Ms. Nadeau created for her students at Labrador Straits Academy.
from Stephanie Nadeau/Twitter In this episode, I chat with Stephanie about how the project started, what additional goals she has for the project, and the excitement the students have with learning about the world.
Additional topics discussed: Postcrossing, pictorial cancellations, postcards from Africa, and postcards from the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In Africa a thing is true at first light and a lie by noon; and you have no more respect for it than for the lovely, perfect wood-fringed lake you see across the sun-baked salt plain. You have walked across that plain in the morning and you know that no such lake is there. But now it is there absolutely true, beautiful and believable.
Ernest Hemingway, True at First Light
It’s funny how it works with postcards — one day getting a postcard from Africa is true at first light and no longer a lie by noon. It was no mirage that these four postcards arrived in my mailbox on the same day. And they’re all absolutely true, beautiful and believable.
Melissa’s husband travels all over the world. And I’m the lucky recipient of this card from Uganda. When I interviewed Nikki Banz for E117 of The Postcardist Podcast, she described this scene she see from her windows. Stamp from South Africa featuring the largest diamond in the world — the Cullinan stone. The Kabaka’s Palce at Mengo, Kampala, Uganda I need to experience standing on the equator. Check out this video about how water flows with the Coriolis Effect.
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Colors fade, temples crumble,
empires fall, but wise words endure.Edward Thorndike
Although we often think about postcards having an image on one side and a message side, there is a type of postcard I like very much: the word card. Here’s a set of seven recent incoming cards to demonstrate what I’m talking about. Each of these postcards has a particular message that was commented about from the sender.
Betsy offers some sound advice. I’ll keep this in mind in case I try to pull off a caper. Simple and nice — a card from Dave that says everything in two words. Jennie made me laugh with this one. The podcast is listened to in 55 countries. Ha! Nikita sent this one as I was recovering from a surgery. Words can uplift. Take a deep breath season. I love this one from Beck. You’re free to interpret this as you like — good amazed or bad amazed. I think Nikita meant good. IndySuz boiled it down to a single word. Ahoy! (My dad had a boatswain’s whistle, so quite a memory.)
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I was sorting through my stack of incoming cards today after I finished a podcast interview (I’ll publish that on February 9) and saw this grouping of colors on postcards that made this cold day much brighter.
First up is this postcard from Nan featuring a watercolor painting in such warm colors. The painting is titled Anza Trail-Coyote Canyon (1996) by Armand F Vallée. The postcard was published by the Anzo Borrreo Foundation.
Next, this Postcrossing meeting card from Kaluga, Russia sent by Valery. That town was celebrating its 650th anniversary and this card captures the warmth of that celebration.
Warmth…yes. What’s warmer than a pair of VW Microbusses on a Southern California beach, surfboards at the ready? And what we don’t see in this picture is Nikita ready to splash into the surf and own the waves.
Yes, that’s the World’s Largest Swatch at Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C. And Betsy was a little girl and got to see it. Lucky me, here it is on a postcard.
Life in the Adirondacks looks absolutely perfect around now, Joe. Look at that late summer sunset and the canoe on Canada Lake.
Clocky has a wonderful podcast called Sent from Disneyland. And sure enough, he does what he says — he sends postcards from Disneyland.
Last up on this technicolor extravaganza is from Joyce Miller, Joyce is a writer, and clearly creativity runs in her family because her cousin Bob created what he calls tessel-kaleidoscopes. This is a real beauty.
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I collect Space Postcards. So, imagine my delight when Trish sent this one-of-a-kind card for my collection. I mean, I certainly don’t have anything like it. It’s big fun in Uranus.
The trifecta of T. Rex, Route 66, and Uranus. But wait, there’s more. This one entertains the secret 12-year-old boy living inside me. Look at the description on the message side of the Having Fun in Uranus card. It says: Uranus, Missouri, on historic Route 66, is a family fun destination, world famous for its Fudge Factory and General Store. Explore Uranus in-person and online at UranusGeneralStore.com. Really. And go ahead and click on that link. Yes, there’s more. Here’s their postcard collection.
Yep, it says that. You gotta go look at their website. Trish also sent this Orange Meringue Pie recipe that looks absolutely delectable. I mean, I feel like this is in my future. It looks crazy good. If I were a deep-space astronaut, this would be what I’d want for space food on a mission to Uranus.
Get in mah bellah! Finally, a special one from Trish because she and her 91-year-old grandpa bought this one for me. Her grandpa lives near the Bull Shoals Dam. I’ve visited that area; it’s really pretty there. Thank you so much to both of you.
Bull Shoals –White River State Park
Did I ever tell you about that? Nah, I probably didn’t. So, here goes.
Our adventure starts with OG and me as we meandered through the labyrinthine side streets of Fez, Morocco. We had just arrived in town a few days earlier after we spent a year working at an archeological dig at the Capitoline Temple in Volubilis. Our visas were due to expire.
I wanted to visit the Fez’s famous leather shops, and even though OG doesn’t like leather, she agreed to join me as long as we could do something to overcome the acrid smell of the tanneries. First, we stopped in a spice shop in search of ras el hanout — the exquisite Moroccan mix of salt, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, allspice, black pepper, and ginger. And, I was looking for mint sprigs to hold under our noses for the tannery visit. Alas, that would have to wait.
We heard a massive ruckus. Men screaming and cursing in Arabic and Berber and French. Children crying. And the thumping and crashing of pottery smashing on the ground in the claustrophobia-inducing bazaar. Just then, OG poked her head out of the spice stall we were in and yanked in a tall, thin man with orange hair who just a second before had been scurrying and scampering around the mass of bodies in the street.
The thin man went nearly vertical as OG pulled him into our shop. She directed him to scrunch down and urged me to help stack spice sacks around him. As I added the last burlap bag to obscure him, he looked up. The thin man had one brown eye and one blue eye.
A huge mass of people came dashing past, screaming and shouting. Ziggy. Ziggy. Ziggy. There were hundreds of them pulsing and pushing through the souk. Half a dozen of the crew crashed into the shop we were in.
Ziggy, they yelled, imploring us to tell them if we had seen the man.
Who’s Ziggy, OG asked, first in Arabic, and then in French.
Ziggy. Ziggy. ZIGGY, an unbearded man said, breathing heavily. Ziggy Stardust. ZIGGY.
OG shook her head. No. And she waved the mob off.
After another 15 minutes passed, the medina quieted down. OG bent down to let the thin man out from behind the spice sacks. He got up and brushed cumin from his hair. And dusted cinnamon from his shirt.
And just then, it dawned on me. The eyes. David Bowie looked right at OG admiringly and said this:
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one dayDavid Bowie, Heroes
OG was a hero. And for her smart and strong move, we got invited to be on stage at the thin man’s concert in Marrakesh. And Bowie sent OG a poster to commemorate her heroism in saving him from the mob in Fez. Here’s a postcard OG made from that poster to help me recall another Adventure with OG.
I got this triptych of sticker postcards Magda designed for International Sticker Day This is such a clever concept — leave space for stickering and then add your own stickers in the white space. (Although Maggie’s sticker game is next level and she added stickers all over the cards.). Too cute.. You can see all of Magda’s Designs at Travel Trinkets Canada.
Do you add stickers to your postcards? I finally organized my stickers. Cards like this prompt me to think more about adding fun little sticky goodness to my mail.
Little science fact because the stickers on this card led me to look up the stickiest substance on earth. Here you go:
The tiny water bacterium Caulobacter crescentus secretes a sugary substance so sticky that just a tiny bit could withstand the pull from lifting several cars at once. With an adhesive force of nearly five tons per square inch, this “glue” is nature’s strongest.
LiveScience and the National Science Foundation
Yes, I ended up looking up the slipperiest substance on earth, too. It’s called BAM. Don’t put that stuff on your cards or they’ll just be slip slidin’ away.
The artist Nikita Regina sent this Vase with Irises (1890) postcard that shows a Vincent van Gogh painting I was lucky enough to see in the Rijksmuseum once upon a starry, starry night. The magical quality of the card and Vincent’s work is beautiful, but Nikita’s needlepoint stamp outshines it all.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze / Swirling clouds of violet haze / Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of China blue / Colors changing hue
Don McLean, Vincent (1972)
Vincent van Gogh features prominently in The Postcardist office Besides having lots of Vincent paraphernalia in my office, I also could listen over and over to Don McLean’s song Vincent (which some call Starry, Starry Night). I had the original American Pie album, and that song concluded our 8th Grade dance. But it was Vincent that I listened to more often. That song sent me to the public library to learn as much as I could about the artist. What a bit of serendipity that I ended up living a 10-minute walk from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam many years later. Or that last October, I sat on a cushion at the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Minneapolis and watched that experience play through three full times.
I never forgot how that fascination with Van Gogh all started. With a song. This song.
Just look at how special this is. Nikita used my magic number for the stamp value. Thank you.
Look at the magnificent detail on that needlepoint “stamp” Nikita created
The Covid pandemic makes cholera seem almost quaint, doesn’t it? I wonder if Gabriel García Márquez would rethink Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera) if he were writing it in 2022. Nah, maybe not. There’s a wordplay in Spanish about the word cólera that has nothing to do with the acute illness caused by a bacterial intestinal infection.
And as horrible as cholera sounds (and it’s pretty bad), Melissa notes in this seven-card Covid series that it’s a rare-to-nonexistent postcard that contains the words “vomiting and diarrhea.” Yes, Melissa, I have to say this is the first one I’ve seen. We might need to get Mark Routh to comment on this. Mark has the world class, category-defining collection of Covid postcards and ephemera (approaching 5,000 items at last count).
Many thanks to Melissa for this series. (Images are from the CDC and the postcards were printed by NeckahNeck Forest Arts Collective.)
Did you read Love in the Time of Cholera? Or see the movie? Here’s the theatrical trailer.
Writing this made me think about all the hand washing I’ve done over the past two years of the pandemic. I commented in Episode 126 about how many people had died during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, and somehow I got that number right (50 million worldwide; 675,00 in the U.S.). As of February 1, 2022, there have been 5.7 million people who died of Covid worldwide, with 881,000 dead in the United States. I’m gonna keep washing my hands, wearing my masks, and getting boosters. Meanwhile, I’ll stay home and look at these new additions to my Covid postcard collection.
UPDATE: Just as I was ready to push publish on this post, I got a postcard from Kristen that said “Wash Your Hands.” How’s that for timing? And that made me think I should make a demo about proper hand washing technique. So I did that this morning as a public service.
A reminder from Kristen H.
Pero si algo habían aprendido juntos era que la sabiduría nos llega cuando ya no sirve para nada.
Gabriel García Márquez, El amor en los tiempos del cólera
Today starts the Year of the Tiger. Louise sent this really nice card with a wish for an auspicious to launch the new year. Thank you, Louise, it has started very well.
Thank you, Louise In a fun little turn, the Google Doodle for today celebrates the Year of the Tiger.
Google Doodle for February 1, 2022 I always wanted to have a tiger as my spirit animal. Sadly, I was born in the Year of the Pig. Yeah, go ahead and laugh. And don’t even bother reading about the personality traits or horoscopes for the Earth Pig. Dammit, I wanna be a tiger. And not that Eye of the Tiger song by Survivor. More like Roar by Katy Perry.
Orla created Imbolc postcards and set them out last night to catch Brigid’s magic dew on Imbolc Eve. Lucky are we who might benefit from a bit of this fairy dust in the form of a postcard.
In this episode of The Postcardist Podcast, Orla Hegarty and I talk about Imbolc; making postcards to honor the holiday; cognitive awe as we look out over the ocean; the mesmerizing qualities of humpback whales Orla sees from her living room window; giant potatoes and Irish immigration in Prince Edward Island; iron-on patches in school uniforms; and how Orla helped a small class of students in Labrador get a large number of postcards from around the word. Postcards connect people — and knowing smart people like Orla helps us connect to the world around us.
First, I’m imagining some of you might be wondering about Imbolc and its meaning. I’d heard of it as a kid growing up, but I didn’t know enough. Let’s all start with a little grounding about what Imbolc signifies.
Imbolc is a pagan holiday celebrated from February 1 through sundown February 2. Based on a Celtic tradition, Imbolc was meant to mark the halfway point between winter solstice and the spring equinox in Neolithic Ireland and Scotland.
History.com
Imbolc, which means in the belly as in the pregnant belly of a sheep, was a time when the breeding cycle of sheep started and ewes began to lactate. It’s a time of rebirth. The onset of spring. The modern holiday is also now known in Christianity as St. Brigid’s Day. You can listen here to a a little more about the ritual In Ireland in this 10-minute Almanac of Ireland podcast that’s a compilation of schoolchildren from the 1930s telling about the tradition. Plus, you can hear slight variations on the pronunciation of the word.
And if you’d like to listen to a pretty song about Imbolc, here’s Lisa Theil’s song of that name:
Now that you have some grounding in Imbolc (listen to the podcast to get a whole lot more from Orla), here are some of Orla’s Imbolc postcards in process. You can see the pieces of cloth and the St. Brigid’s Cross she refers to.
Orla and I also talked about Max Dashu’s book, Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion. This video is a good summary of the author’s work on the book.
We also talked about P.E.I. and the world’s largest potato. You can visit this 14-foot tall super spud at The Canadian Potato Museum in O’Leary, Prince Edward Island. This definitely has to be a stopover on The Peace, Love & Postcards Tour. Who’s with me?
Image from Atlas Obscura’s terrific site And we talked about the postcard project Orla promoted for the school children at Labrador Straits Academy in L’Anse au Loup, Labrador, Canada.
In this show, we also talked about the word “wyrd” and its link to fate and weaving; postcard goggles; and whale watching from the beach at St. Vincent’s. This is the view Orla has from her house. Now that’s a connection to the sea.
Finally, I’d like to leave you with something Orla said that still has me laughing. Challenge accepted, Orla. Challenge accepted.
Anything could be made into a postcard, Frank. Anything.
ORLA HEGARTY
Do you remember this scene from Risky Business? Back before Tom Cruise was Maverick in Top Gun. Or Tom Cruise the Creepy Scientologist Guy?
Sometimes you gotta say what the fuck. Take your chance. Kinda like deciding to take a pause from Instagram to get back to a little more authenticity in writing postcards. To really work on real connections. To chill a little.
So, you might be wondering how I came to this idea. It’s multi-pronged, but let me give you a list:
- Massive time suck. Huge. I gasped when I discovered I spent an average of 29 hours per week on Instagram. I have lots of things to do, but that IG alert going off is a drug.
- Content delivered to fewer and fewer followers. I have a lot of followers, but on a good day IG showed what I published to fewer than 500 of them.
- Feeding the beast is exhausting. Receive cards. Photograph cards. Write captions. Determine timing for posts. Respond to comments. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
- Is it about connections or social media recognition? There is good to be had on IG — that’s the connections. But it morphs. And it can rapidly become about likes and exposure.
- I don’t own my content on IG. And neither do you. If Instagram decides they don’t like what I post, down it goes. Same if someone angrily “reports” you.
- Not enough space to write meaningfully. I like writing captions, but there’s a moment when it’s nice to have a little more breathing space to write. That’s here.
- If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product. Notice all those ads? I mean it was getting to the point where every third post I’d see was an ad. Had to search for friends’ posts.
- More creative freedom. I want to do more than post photos of cards I receive. It’s a feed the beast issue. I want to write more about postcards and connections.
- More time to work on The Postcardist Podcast. I’ve enjoyed making that show. And I plan to make many more. That takes a lot of time to produce. Now I’ll have more time to do that.
- More joy; less stress. Those of you who know me know that I’ve dealt with a pretty serious health issue for three years. I have more to deal with. Lowering stress is good for all of us.
That’s a list. I could write 10 more or 90 more reasons. I think you get the point. I’m not saying I’ll never go back to IG; it’s just a pause. I threw the circuit breaker. I’m not a person who announces something then changes my mind. It’s why I didn’t give a warning before I pushed pause. But I do reserve the right to wander back to Instagram someday with some guardrails in place. I’ll miss out on the interactions with kind people. And I’ll miss seeing some photos. But I’ll be glad to reclaim my time.
Just to show you something I could never show on Instagram without being reported, here’s a postcard I got from my Sugar & Kiki subscription this month. And it’s the words I said when I pushed pause. Kate knows me. And it cracked me up that this was in my mail that day.
If you’re here — thank you. If you’re not, neither of us will be the wiser. Let’s work on getting back to basics. Postcards connect people. Let’s do more of that.