Why I’m a stamp collector, reason 1

In recent days, I’ve been musing over this question: why am I a stamp collector? There’s no single reason, but rather multiple reasons that I enjoy the hobby, and I intend to share them in a series of posts here.

Reason 1: stamp collecting stimulates the senses

We live in an age in which great value is assigned to entertainment and technology. We spend our time watching the television and surfing the Web; we communicate using 1s and 0s via e-mail and Facebook. Verily, I myself spend time working on this website, and at the end of the day it is nothing but a collection of bits and bytes. If the electricity is turned off, the things on which we spend our time suddenly cease to function.

Stamps, on the other hand, are tangible and stimulate the senses in a way that websites and the mass media cannot. I can touch the textured surface of a Thai stamp picturing Pa Hin Ngam National Park; I can run my finger across the surface of an envelope mailed when Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States. I can gaze at a beautiful modern landscape design or be absolutely amazed at the intricate engraving required to produce some of the true classics of philately. And when I open a box of old covers, I can smell the musty years.

In addition to that, I frankly just enjoy preparing a letter to go in the mail. Folding the paper, sealing the envelope, affixing a stamp—plus one of my own local post stamps—all feel real in a way that clicking “send” on an e-mail does not. Hinging a stamp into my album feels real in a way that uploading a digital photo to a website does not. I enjoy the experience.

I do not claim that stamp collecting tops other things in life—one’s faith, a loving marriage, strong relationships with family members, experiencing God’s creation. Even such a stamp nut as I can’t argue that. But there is a certain sense-based enjoyment that I derive from the hobby, and that, my friends, is one of the reasons I am a stamp collector.

Published 2011-02-16