Things I Tell My Wife by Matt Knutson

“I think we’re going to need a new mailbox,” I said to my wife after checking the mail earlier this week. Gracelyn and I have a pretty regular routine of heading out to the mailbox when we get home at the end of the day, and my eldest daughter didn’t care that we had just been pummeled by a snow storm. Trying to dodge the drifts and cold wind meant this was a rather quick excursion to the street and back – so quick that I almost didn’t notice our mailbox was sitting on top of the massive snow pile instead of attached to its post.

How did it get there? The evidence is inconclusive, but I suspect it was the mailperson who broke it off. The snow plow had already been through to clear the street, and there appeared to be only one car track leading up to the mailbox. That being said, he or she would have had to of really smacked it in order to take it off. Our mailbox, like most, sits on a bar that is attached to a post in the ground. Whoever took out our mailbox tore the bar completely off the post and took the box off of the bar it typically rests upon. Let’s just say there was a bit of carnage in the snowbank.

I immediately began to wonder what to do. No life lesson had prepared me for this moment as a young homeowner. Most certainly this mailbox is my responsibility, but we’ve got nearly a foot of snow covering the very frozen ground – I can’t just dig a hole and install a new mailbox. Some internet sleuthing revealed I should get a new mailbox, put it in a large bucket, and add in some cement to give it a strong foundation. That temporary, seasonal solution may have gotten the job done, but it seemed like a rather expensive way to ensure the mail would be delivered to our house. I needed a cheaper, more creative answer.

It would take a few trips between the garage, the shed, and the house to come up with all that I needed. Moments later, our mailbox was thoroughly duct-taped and bungee corded to its post once more. A few shake tests proved that it met my (admittedly low) standards for stability, and I returned to the house victoriously.

The mailbox incident has been a good reminder that sometimes you just have to do what you need to do in order to get by. It is a sentiment we’ve been embracing more and more with two little girls under the age of two years old in our house. Most days are simply a whirlwind until 9 p.m. when our daughters are asleep and Sera and I can finally put the house back together in preparation for the next day. When something comes along like a broken mailbox, the approach almost certainly needs to be dictated by our limited flexibility. Before I would have seen this as lazy, but these days I see it as essential. I wouldn’t say we’re actually barely getting by, but some days it sure feels like it. A broken mailbox can be the surprise that puts you over the edge if you let it.

Thankfully, we didn’t let it spin us out of control. Our mailbox certainly looks a little rough around the edges, and our neighbors will probably judge us for it over the coming weeks, but it’s as good as it’s going to get until spring finally arrives. There’s a quote that I’ve come to appreciate that’s attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Sometimes in our pursuit of perfection we forget that not every pursuit is worthy of perfection. When the time is right for us to have a perfect mailbox, we’ll get it. Until then, everyone should just be thankful it’s not sitting on top of the snowbank.

Matt Knutson is a communications specialist in Rochester.