I had an interesting encounter this afternoon when I met the Postie out in front of the house..  I introduced myself and as we chatted, he commented about some stock he’d purchased in a company that I haven’t worked for in over a year.  For the first time I caught a glimpse of a completely different perspective, a world where the only connection to your client is through the outer markings on an envelope.  When I realized this, I even felt a bit silly for offering my first name.  I’m the only one who gets mail at this address after all, and why wouldn’t I be me?

When I worked at technical support several years ago, I knew clients by their username alone (save a few regular-callers), and often I would recall a plethora of information about the specific configuration of their computer, previous problems and additional email addresses without much thought.  Several of the regular clients I could still list off by username, but any further details of their lives are forever lost in the Telco archives..

This really highlights to me what a huge impact our environment can have on our orienting stories, our way of seeing the world. I’m curious now, has anyone else had this experience, or can you relate to the tech-support or postman’s side of the equation?