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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, The longest officially recognized mail delivery delay is 138 years, from a letter posted in 1876 and delivered in 2014. And I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Here’s an excerpt from a 215 blog from CardsDirect.com.
One woman recently received a letter posted over a century ago – 138 years to be exact. According to the Inquisitor, a piece of mail was sent on January 27, 1877 from Sains-du-Nord in Northern France and arrived in mid-June 2015 in Trélon, France. Here’s the real kicker – the letter only had to travel a mere six miles to make its destination, and it was apparently marked “Ship highspeed.” Somehow, it got lost in the chaos of letters at the time, leading to this phenomenal story.
Thérèse Pailla, 80 years old, is the great-granddaughter of the original recipient and received the letter from a postal worker earlier this month. Both the postal worker and Pailla were astounded by the letter’s arrival. Still completely legible, the message referred to shipping instructions for an order of yarn from Pailla’s great-grandfather’s spinning mill.
We have one contribution in the mailbag today and it comes in from Geoff.
Here’s Geoff’s contribution:
I’m Geoff Gentry, xforce11, and this is Stuff I Learned Yesterday. This feedback was prompted by two podcast episodes. First, silly episode 647. In that episode, Darrell talked about sympathy, seeing, and helping others. And in the episode, he rephrased Descartes’ famous line of “I think, therefore I am” to “I am thought of, therefore, I am.” That phrase and the entire episode. Really touched my heart and my mind. The second episode was the Fringe Podcast Rewatch, season 4, episode 7, Wallflower. That episode dealt with a man going to extremes in order to be seen.
This has been a hard year for me. Here’s a little background. I’ve never been married, still looking for that special lady. And I have no kids. I’m an only child, and I have aging parents. I was dealing with stress because I felt alone. I felt like people didn’t truly see me because my situation was so different from their own and they didn’t know how to help. My parents have had some health struggles this year. That combined with a stressful year at the school I worked for have made things hard.
It all cumulated at Easter. I visited Mom and Dad and didn’t feel well all weekend. I took that Monday off. And when I went into work on Tuesday, I still did not feel good. I went to the school nurse and she told me to go to the hospital because my blood pressure was very high. Thankfully, I have a guy in my church who is like a brother to me. He works in the same town I do. Nathan was able to take me to the ER. I got checked out and other than my blood pressure, I was fine. I got on some medication and met with my primary care provider.
The Lord showed me through this process that my blood pressure was one of the symptoms of a bigger problem. My diet was not good and I was dealing with things poorly and getting stressed out. Thankfully, through his guidance and wisdom from others, I took some steps. I got on a meal delivery plan that’s helping me eat better. I have set up long term care insurance to provide for the care I need down the road. I have worked with a lawyer to set up my will, power of attorney and medical power of Attorney.
I have talked with my parents and others about what I’m feeling and going through. One such group is my Ironman group. This is a group of godly men that meet regularly and pray for each other weekly and we help each other out as needed. It is such a tremendous blessing. I’m also on some medication to help with anxiety. It is helping to put that buffer back so I don’t get stressed out as quickly. Yes, I am a little unique being single, having no kids and no siblings. Yes, that stressed me out because I had no one to go to for advice who had gone through my exact situation before I did. But I’ve realized that my church can use this as an opportunity to serve better and serve people like me down the road. But most of all, I’ve learned that I can be that person for others in the future.
So what have I learned? God wants us to trust him and find our peace in him. But we need to join him in the work. He calls us to be good stewards of our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our spirit and our time. It is okay to ask for and receive help. It is good to talk and or get therapy and take medication as needed. Most of all, it is not all on us. God designed us to live in community and support each other. Don’t deny others the blessings of helping and serving by being selfish. This is Geoff, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
Thanks to Geoff for contributing to this Monday Mailbag, and I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on December 29th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.