Tag Closings

Sincerely yours

Michael 12 Comments

Maybe it’s because of the last few posts I’ve written between the two blogs that had to do with letter writing or maybe because of all the Christmas cards I wrote last week and are receiving and reading this week. Or maybe it’s because I was telling myself to start taking my own advice and in the new year to write real letters to real people. Whatever reason started my musings, I’ve been thinking about the way people sign off on their cards and letters.

Email got the world on the fast track of communication back in a different century. It’s been with us since the early 70s but businesses really took to it as a means of information sharing in the 1990s. Before the calendar turned that really big page onto a new millennium, just about every business in the world was conducting business correspondence by email, and tens of millions of individuals had signed up for personal email addresses.

The earliest email users still followed pretty formal letter writing styles with proper greetings, proper punctuation, full words, and even closings just like, well, just like mail. I know because I was among the earliest email users getting my first exposure to it in 1984. An obvious draw of email was the speed by which ideas could be exchanged. The rapid returns and replies took a toll on some of the niceties. “Yours truly” plus your full name became “Yours” and maybe your initials to just your initials. Today with the ability to pre-format signature blocks, an email is likely to be closed with more information that what might have been on a 1970s business letterhead! But when it comes time for the sender to actually close an email, we’re still struggling with things like “Yours,” or “Best,” or for the higher up corporate officers, “Regards.”

All this has seeped into personal letter writing, such as what still might exist. I look at some of the cards I’ve gotten this week and of the ones that have more than a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays,” most senders added word or two, usually “Love,” but a couple “Soon” (one with a !), a few “Take care,” and one “Blessings.” (I liked that, and appreciated it too!) But if you told someone they had to use more than 2 words to close a letter, a real letter, not just a card, how would they do it? What would you write? 

If I am going to start writing letters next year I better get on the ball now and figure out how I’m going to close them. What will be my personal sign off? “And you must now consider me, as, dear [sir or madam], your most obliged, and most humble servant,” has a wonderful sound to it but alas, Samual Johnson used it so often it’s become downright trite. But it is certainly better than a curt “Yours truly” or even a “Very truly yours.” But no, I need something somewhere between them.

Some ways I’ve decided I will not end my letters are:

  • Sincerely yours (Of course I’m being sincere! I am writing, aren’t I?)
  • Cordially yours (Of course, I’m being cordial! I am writing, aren’t I?)
  • Affectionately yours (Of course I’m being affectionate. I am writing … oh, never mind.)
  • Respectfully (Really?)
  • Hugs and kisses (Cute, but not for everybody.)

In the running are:

  • Always and forever, profoundly and affectionately, your dear friend
  • With sincere best wishes for your health and happiness
  • Stay well and happy, your dear, loving friend
  • Please forgive my horrible letter writing

I’ll get back to you about what I decide. Until then,

     I remain your humble and faithful servant, yours truly.

If you could do it all over again, would you? Could you? Read why we say you shouldn’t even have to ask if you take time now to review where you are in life and ready a reset for the new year in the latest blog post at ROAMcare.org.

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Sorry, We’re Closed

Michael Leave a comment

There’s another cold spell coming.  This morning’s local newscast had the crawl across the bottom of all the schools and activities delayed or closed because of the snow and cold.  And tomorrow it gets colder.

In our part of the world, two hour delays are very popular for schools.  We don’t recall having delays when we were in school.  Either you went or you didn’t.  We don’t recall buses either.  We walked to school.  Through the snow.  Uphill.  Both ways.  (Actually He of We had to cross a little valley between home and school so he really did get to walk uphill both ways.  Just in case you were wondering.)

We suppose schools use delays so the day still counts as one of the 180 school days our state requires while giving a break to those waiting for a bus.  It’s a good idea when there is snow.  Those two hours give the road crews a chance to get the streets in shape for the school bus.  And when the temperature pre-sun-up is in the teens they give the air a chance to warm up post-sun-up so the children aren’t quite as cold.  We’re somewhat confused though as to exactly the benefit of a two hour delay when at 7:00 it’s 3 degrees and at 9:00 it’s 5 degrees.  Seems they might want to rethink that.

But we didn’t intend to write to about school delays this morning.  It’s those other things.  The closings.  And not schools.  Among the school delays and closings there are always other closings.  Day care centers, adult activity groups, even Meals on Wheels.  These confuse us even more.  Shouldn’t these services be the first ones to make certain they are up and running when it’s single digit air temperatures with wind chills below zero?

If the Meals and Wheels don’t get through because of the cold do we want our older neighbors navigating their own ways to the local diners for lunch in that same cold?  We understand many of these services are themselves manned by older volunteers but they also have paid staff to direct and control activities.  Perhaps these should be the days those staff members take control.

There are always fire departments that march across the crawl and say “closed.”  We know that’s not true.  We’ve seen the news stories about fire fighters fighting fires in artic conditions.  Exactly what’s closed when a fire department is closed?

When a day care center closes because of inclement weather where do the children go?  Most of them stay home.  They stay home with the parent who should be at work but can’t be because there is no place to put the child.  Of course there is always the chance that anyone can call off unexpectedly due to illness but when a string of cold, snowy days stretches across most of a week, the ones left alone at work grumble a lot.  The question has to be asked, if the day care center is just the ticket for dual working parent families when it’s 70 degrees and sunny, why is it not when it’s 7 degrees and falling?

We realize that when the weather gets bad it gets bad for everybody.  Yet there are some essential services we seem to be missing as essential.  Helping neighbors and fulfilling obligations should be at the top of somebody’s list.  Just saying no isn’t the answer.  On the other hand, there are certainly those who serve better when absent from work than present.  But hey, we can’t all be bosses!

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?