Thoughtful Account of Puny Business

What do you do when you get a letter that is addressed to the previous occupant of your apartment?
There's a sequence of succeeding dilemma. The moral dilemma: is it my responsibility to deliver it to the person? The practical dilemma: how the hell do I find this person now? The practical-moral: does it matter how important the letter is? Do circumstances matter? The cognitive dilemma: do I spare the resources to think about it consciously? and lastly but not leastly, the existential dilemma: what kind of person does it make me?

When I get such a letter I take it from the box, hesitantly near the paper recycle bin. I bring it home and place it on the counter. I give it a few days, months or years - depending on the frequency of apartment cleaning, the continuity of lodging and occasional frenzies. I then throw it away angrily with whatever other junk that has found itself to that corner, usually completing the full emotional circle of guilt, helplessness, anger and purifying indifference.

Here's a rationalization: most letters that arrive in the mail useless. It is highly unlikely that the letter is of some importance to the recipient. If it is, chances are he will look for it and contact the sender and ask them to re-send the letter or give them a proper address. If the letter contained a unique document of sorts, they will come looking for me (or send a letter). Of course it is possible that recipient doesn't know about it. In which case there are two options - it is either true or not true that the sender awaits a response. If it is, then the sender will to contact the recipient (by, perhaps, sending another letter). In the scarce case where the sender sent an extremely important letter and does not await any response - the letter will indeed be lost and I have contributed to it by inaction. However, given the unlikeliness of this event and the effort that needed in order to ascertain that this is indeed the case, I think it is reasonable to not expect me to do so (unless there are some extraordinary circumstances like a notice on the letter saying 'this is really important and I am not waiting for a response') unless I am an overly enthusiastic/passionate/bored person. If the letter is important to the recipient and/or the sender they will come looking for it or send another letter, in which case I will happily reach out to the pile of dust and give it to them. There is a reasonable period of time in which they will do so and if they fail to do it after an significant time, it is reasonable to assume that this is not the case. So unless the previous tenant had his grandmother's irreplaceable wedding certificate which he know needs to get character reference from the Police, without which he cannot pay the costumes for the package he needs to receive - I will probably not help him very much.
Why even bother? well, in the case that it is a unique and irreplaceable item, I don't want to have it on my conscience. Why then, not try harder? Well, given that I live here over six months, any previous tenant is responsible to have his mail forwarded to her or him or make sure that important irreplaceable items are sent to his or her right address. Why not leave at the mail box? what good would that do? Why not return it to the sender? I'm not sure it even works, I've never done it before. Where do I even put it? why would the delivery postman take it? Even if it does reach the recipient, will they even do something with it? after all, they may think that they've discharged their duty by sending it. After all, they sent it here in the first place - they must be thinking this is the right address.

This story, however persuasive, is not why I do what I do with letters that arrive at my mailbox. But it may be why I don't do anything else.