We live in a time different in many ways from all the times of the past. Perhaps the most significant difference is the ability for so many people today to have nearly instant gratification of most of their wants. Bored? Turn on the TV or pop in a video game or check out the tweets of anyone you wished you knew. Hungry? We know what the alarming obesity rate tells us about how easy it is to gratify that desire. Our malls are filled with the treasures of the world and most things cost less for the upper middle class in real monetary terms than they have ever cost before. It is easy to see why philately has not attracted the quantity of youth that it had in the past and why our hobby has had slower growth rates in the last twenty years. It is a hobby of a maturer mind-one that understands that the richest pleasures in life are those that are worked for and that patience and effort are required not only until you find that rare item missing from your collection but for most of the lovely things in life. And like life too, when you find that precious gem missing from your collection, the price in money will have been dwarfed by the only price that matters which is a world where our lifetime is so finite-time and effort.
