the uncommon life of common objects

these essays on the design and the everyday also written by akiko bush appealed to me as she has a chapter on the mail box and the desk.

the author describes the first journey to the mail box as a journey toward identity. the first time you encounter a card in the mailbox addressed to you, you understand that a mailbox is te place where news of the world arrived, and better yet, it is news that sometimes arrives with your name on it.

every mail box has an imprint of their owner. a little roadside cabinet printed with ones name and address is a personal identity. inside it is the information, essential and nonessential that defines ones life; not only bills and bank statements, but also flyers and advertisments.

it seems almost astonishing that in the day of electronic defense systems- of digital passwords, laser home surveillance and keypad automatic access- we continue to use the roadside mailbox at all. but maybe that is the point exactly. at the time when all manner of communications equipment has been reformed and reinvented entirely, this small roadside cabinet, at once conspicuous and assailable, has an undeniable tenacity in continuing to be just as it has always been. whether a simple green plastic box or a small red barn, it is a piece of communications equipment that knows its own vulnerability, that accepts all the frailties implicit in human exchange.