The Philatelist

<p>“It happens more than just sometimes that overly refined persons like thee and me may opt to turn away from ordinary things and seek entry into a more perfect world than this one. I’m thinking about art galleries concert halls coin and stamp collections ingenious mechanical devices or a well-played chess match. People like you spend too much time gazing at the stars while others like my good friend who offers us a case study of the type has traded away his life in a still-continuing struggle to assemble a non-representative array of the world’s most beautiful postage stamps. A little custodial ‘art gallery’ he calls it his own bespoken domain after three failed marriages and a deleterious son. All the elements I’ve been told can be found in a single drop of sea water. So too with a choice collection of the world’s postage brought together for aesthetic purposes. Thus my friend.  One doesn’t need to be a good person remember to be extraordinarily interesting anyway.”—From the author  </p>