COVER N. 271 - USA

Postmark: ? 20.05.2023 (?) 

Posted on the 20 May (?); Received on the  22 June 2023

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What would life be without mysteries? and I am not talking about the "great" existential mysteries with which we are confronted from the moment we begin to question our perception of what surrounds us, whether tangible or not. These I have long ago solved by dropping a Kubrikian monolith over them all.

That is to say, if science provides the answers - and it continuously moves forward, slowly shedding light into the darks of the unknown  in spite  of the paradoxically ever growing obscurantist forces and movements that  also ceaselessly try to blow out the advancing torch of enlightenment and knowledge -  the better; if not, I'll resign myself to the limitations of  my human condition, absolutely convinced that the Bible got it right, even if  I'm not a believer, for "thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return", a simple empirical finding that in itself is but a way of enunciating Lavoisier's  mass conservation law, or as our enormous Fernando Pessoa said through the mouth of Alberto Caeiro, one of his magisterial heteronyms: There are metaphysics enough in thinking about nothing....

Luckily, mysteries can be much less disquieting than those above:

Take this cover I received from the US some days ago:

Three nice stamps, a return address, which I erased from the scan, as usual, for privacy reasons, but no addresser's name.

Inside a beautiful postcard signed by someone who could be named Tayne, or Jayme or Jayne.

I am convinced that the sender must be a postcrosser who forgot to include the postcard ID number, and now I cannot register it on the platform. 

In order to prove my theory, I've searched the Postcrossing user's database for the State mentioned on the return address and I did find a Jayne. So I've emailed her... let's see if I get this thing solved or if I will have another lingering doubt to add to the multitude of questions I have amassed throughout my more than 6 decades of being....

Stamps left to right:

- Joel Sartore has been on a mission, which luckily has been well publicised, so there is no need to get into great detail here. Suffice to say that in the 18 years that have passed since he started his amazingly ambitious project of photographing every living species in human care, out of a total of 25,000, he has already photographed more than 14,000 producing exquisite images that have been exhibited throughout the world, in books and....in stamps.

On 19MAY2023, USPS issued a sheet of twenty Forever self adhesive stamps dedicated to the Photo Ark Project illustrated with photographs by Joel Sartore.

The Laysan teal, Anas laysanensis, the duck featured on the satmp on the cover, is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands but it now thrives only on the Laysan Island and in two atolls. It has been slowly recovering from a minimal count of 12 surviving individuals in 1912, but is still listed as critically endangered in IUCN's red list.

- "To infinity and beyond!", who would forget the uplifting and immortal words of Buzz Lightyear, one of the most loved animation character from one of the most loved animation movie series.

USPS changed them to Go Beyond, an empowering proposition, a motto for life, in the five forever self-adhesive stamps illustrated with images of the Toy Story character, issued on 03AUG2022, of which one can be seen on this cover.

-  Chief Standing Bear (1829-1908), was a Ponka tribe Native American who would distinguish himself in the fight for civil rights for  Indians, having been the first native American to be granted civil rights under American law, when Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled on 12 May 1879 that "an Indian is a person"... 

Honouring his legacy, 115 years after his demise, USPS issued on 12MAY2023 the single Forever self-adhesive stamp with his portrait which can be seen on the cover.

Other than the  20, (which I presume May) and Saint...the postmark is illegible.