The postman keeps on ringing

http://www.postcrossing.com

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost. The main line is: if you send a postcard, you’ll receive at least one back, from a random postcrosser somewhere in the world.

Postcrossing comes not long after after the well known bookcrossing, which I would define as an organized trend where people decide to free books they have read, leaving them out in the wilderness, tagged with a tracking number so that their path (with the subsequent readers´ help) can be followed. In this case, the subjects of free trade are postcards that you can start either sending and receiving as soon as you request an address from the aforementioned site. The process is easy, well described, and the site feels both professional and amusing. It particularly worths to say that this is a one person work, that of the portuguese Paulo Magalhães, who confesses to have been surpassed in his expectations by the rapid development of the initiative.
Since a postcard is something you write on your own, sending them to unkowns is a beautiful metaphor of giving oneself to another. My hopes are that Postcrossing keeps on growing, as representative of this spirit and as a kind of poetical justice towards the infamous chain letters. In times of email floods, give yourself a reality bite! 🙂