Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Monday, July 1, 2024

Beaten and Returned

In early May, prior to leaving for a six-week trip abroad, I sent a package to my daughter in San Francisco. A few days later, just before I left Montana, I received notification from the United States Postal Service (USPS) via their tracking system that the package was undeliverable. As it turns out, I had written the wrong street number for her address, and the package had been returned to the San Francisco Post Office.

Also prior to leaving for the Philippines, I installed a RING security doorbell at my house. One day before arriving back home from the Philippines (seven weeks from the time I mailed it), I saw, via my smartphone RING app, that the package had been returned to my house by the person collecting my mail for me.

Honestly, the package looked as though it had been on a seven-year venture. The corners and sides were filthy and worn down. The corners were mashed, looking as though the package had been rolled down a long hill to finally reach me again. A lot can happen in seven weeks. According to NASA, an entire Apollo mission to and from the moon can be managed in less than nine days. I don’t know the weird route such return packages take, but I am pleased my badly beaten package was returned. The system does work.

The Package

—Mitchell Hegman

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