Life in the slow lane

For this week's theme of "Slow" for Illustration Friday, I wanted to illustrate something that depicted slow movement. "What is slow?" is a curious question to me. It's all relative.

Slow ~~ © Patricia Pinsk

What we now consider slow in our society used to be considered fast. Take for example the Postal Service. It is commonly referred to as "snail mail". However, if you lived in the era where pigeon post was considered express service, you would probably become faint with excitement if you received your mail from thousands of miles away within a week. 

Over the years, others have tried various animals to deliver mail including dogs, camels and horses. There was also the use of trains. The most inventive method of delivery, in my mind, was the use of rocket mail.

“The rocket would land by deploying an internal parachute upon arrival. It has been attempted by various organizations in many different countries, with varying levels of success. It has never become widely seen as being a viable option for delivering mail, due to the cost of the schemes and numerous failures.”

It sounds like the use of rockets was an accident waiting to happen - much like our modern day idea of using aerial drones to deliver packages. Call me old fashioned, but I think I may prefer the snail mail approach if it means I don't have to suffer a concussion when I receive my mail or packages.

This week's illustration is a tribute to the good ol' postal delivery service. It is drawn in ink with the use of one of my digital photos.

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