Dreaming of when it's over

Kai and Satchi

"What will this bleak time be called when it's all over?" ~ Tweet from Pamela Colloff

I'm afraid my grandchild Kai has recently developed some kind of insomnia. Every night it takes her later and later to fall asleep, and it's usually after midnight. No, she doesn't take an afternoon siesta. I'm beginning to worry that she's suffering from some anxiety that makes nodding off difficult for her.

She's active the whole day--playing with the dog Satchi, feeding her, giving her vitamin, chatting on FB Messenger with her cousin Machiko Susi in Antipolo, playing pretend with her miniature figurines and dolls, an hour of Netflix cartoons. You'd think that's already a full day for a child.

Yesterday she carefully wrote on two postcards and told her pen pals about how bored she was. And I quote: " Extreeeeeemely bored! Satchi is bored too waiting for me to go outside and play. Sometimes I am able to see a very pretty butterfly. Oh! And to go to parties!"

Good morning even to old mail! Or here's to postcards one more time

Sometimes serendipity happens while scrolling down Google+ or whatever social media outlet one uses in the 21st century.

Now to blend these "finds" with something old century but not too old. In the material world, there are postcards, real ones that can be held, can be seen or read, can be heard (the sender's voice down to the last chuckle), can be smelled, can be tasted, that is, if you eat paper.

Arlene Esperida, administrator of the Artists Trading Cards-Philippines in Facebook is sometimes frustrated that she sends out her little works of art to joiners of the group but very little actual exchange through use of the post office happens. Thus, it isn't mutually beneficial.

Take heart, Arlene, as I carry out our call on this front, on this space.

All the effort required is to make cutouts (if you aren't into drawing or painting) and pasting them on some kind of hardboard paper, sturdy enough to withstand travel, say, from the province of Isabela to where she is in Japan. Or vice versa. Repeatedly, we've told those so inclined to do an exchange, that it's a good way to communicate and at the same time, democratize art. Or you can just use any available postcard and do things with it--all it takes is a sprinkle of imagination. And of time. And of space carved out jealously.

Being an inveterate believer in the strength of postal mail, I've sent out and received some memorable cards from two chaps in my life. I've smudged their names and addresses to protect what's left of their privacy (tee hee there), but you can get the drift of what the potential of the ATC can be.

By the way, for those interested in a more visual definition of an ATC, visit Pinterest.com and be delighted with the hundreds of thousands of possibilities in this still beautiful world.

Photos of postcards by Babeth Lolarga