Today, I went to the post office to mail my rent check and also buy some stamps (Unemployment Accomplishment!). Usually, I just get my stamps from the automated machine, and out pop the "FOREVER" stamps with the Liberty Bell on them. This time, however, I had to go to a teller because I was going to pay with a bunch of dimes, and I assumed the machine did not accept coins. The teller gave me these:
Ok, they're the latest stamps. Fine. And ok, Mother Teresa was pretty cool and stamp-worthy, no matter what religion you are or aren't. But, this was the conversation I had in my head with the teller...
Me: Um, can I just have the Liberty Bell stamps?
Teller: Oh...ok...
Me: It's just that I don't want to send any message with my mail....not that it would be a bad message, but...I feel guilty enough on a daily basis without thinking about all the good deeds Mother Teresa did. And what if the person I'm sending this stamp to, i.e. my landlord, has some sort of weird problem with her?
Teller: Problem?
Me: I dunno, maybe my landlord just renounced Catholicism and I upset her and she decides to evict me? Or, maybe my union's business manager decides to delay my dues payment just because she doesn't like any additional Catholic guilt?
Teller: I can't imagine any of that would happen...
Me: But what if it does?!
Teller: Um...
Me: I'm a big, dirty Jew. Just give me the Liberty Bell stamps.
Of course, I said none of that. I stood there and watched the teller count out 4 Mother Teresa stamps and give them, as well as both Jewish and Catholic guilt, to me.
Oy vey.

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