The best part about living in Germany was that sending mail to Iraq was free. No stamp necessary. And I milked that for all it was worth, sending articles and photos and many letters. 215 of them, to be exact.
This time around, I sent 45. Granted, we had more regular contact via internet, so there was less to say in letters. And he was deployed for half as long. But still...
I think I am proof that people abuse privileges they don't have to pay for.
Posted by Sarah at November 22, 2008 08:47 AM | TrackBackI would contend that you are proof that *some* people abuse the privileges they don't pay for.
Posted by: Sis B at November 22, 2008 09:57 AMI abused the hell out of the "free mail" privilege from Afghanistan. I didn't keep count, but it wasn't uncommon for me to write 4 or 5 letters in a slow day. I would go a week or two without, and then write another batch. Most were to my wife, some to Mom (who didn't get a SINGLE letter from my little brother in Iraq the year before), and a lot to random people I knew only from the Intarweb. One female I knew from a forum I was on was a school teacher, and she read some of my letters (or parts of them, at least) talking about the people and the landscape and the climate and whatnot to her students while they were learning about that part of the world. So some good came from it, I guess.
There is nothing better than getting a letter from home when you're in the middle of nowhere. They couldn't always get us water, food, or ammunition, but when they did come through, they brought the mail, too.
Sig
Posted by: Sig at November 22, 2008 12:24 PMUh yeah...I remember the sending 12-packs of Diet Mountain Dew...and feeling bad that the packages were so heavy. I abused it too, all of the time! I can't imagine how much it would cost to send those packages from the US. Ouch.
Posted by: Nicole at November 22, 2008 02:30 PMSo Sis, you're saying that if it were free to send packages and mail to your husband, you wouldn't do it more often than you do now? And I thought I was good at self-discipline...
Posted by: Sarah at November 22, 2008 03:51 PMNo, I'm not saying I wouldn't be part of the *some* people, too. I was talking more about the scientific quality of your example rather than the content. One person in one instance does not prove a theory. That's all.
Although I would agree that many if not most people abuse some sort of free privilege here and there. But I don't think all people abuse all free privileges all the time.
And I don't have free postage but my husband does and he sure as hell doesn't abuse it. Think you could teach him a thing or two? ;)
Posted by: Sis B at November 22, 2008 09:16 PMUm, OK. Well, I don't abuse all free privileges either: I don't take free meds from the health clinic, for example. I have always been a nazi about heating and cooling, even when we lived on post and didn't pay energy bills.
But I still stand by my generalization that we don't treat resources the same way when they're free as we do when we have to pay for them.
Next time you use an anecdote to make a point, I'll try to remember to point it out to you as "not proof of a theory." You know, not every girl's brain is like spaghetti. Only *some* of them.
Yeesh, nitpick much?
Posted by: Sarah at November 23, 2008 12:46 AMAw, I didn't mean to nitpick. I don't think you abused your mail privileges, either, but that's just me.
And I totally expected flak over the girl brain spaghetti thing and didn't get it! I knew you were out there lurking with that thought. ;)
Posted by: Sis B at November 23, 2008 02:32 PM