“Snacks”

Lately I've been ending my letters with the word Snacks instead of Thanks. Why?, you may or may not wonder.

I got tired of writing Thanks. Apparently I'm a needy little person, and I write emails asking folks for stuff: do this for me, do that for me, please help me to...the list is practically endless.

And then people write me back and say “Okay”, or “Sorry, I can't do it”, and I have to acknowledge that they at least understood my message, or that they got it anyway.

But “Thanks” has lost its power, at least with me.  Doesn't express the gratitude I feel toward folks who grant me a little part of their attention.

The other day the little woman and I were waiting for a seemingly interminable length of time at some Bureaucracy. And we couldn't see what was going on, as the door was closed, and Patty says, well, it's about 11 a.m., so they're probably having cookies and milk and now they're gonna unroll their little towels and lie down on the floor for naptime. So that should only take another fifteen minutes.

Something about that image appealed to me: the idea of harassed government workers having a scheduled little break, just like in daycare.  So they wouldn't get cranky. A good idea, I thought, reminding myself to always have a towel with me in case I need to lie down somewhere.

So then I decided to end my letters more pleasantly, and the daycare image having taken hold, I choose now to end my letters more sweetly . More childlike. A word that is more warm and friendly, more evocative of the gratitude I feel toward those who have written me back, a word that in and of itself suggests the goodness of childhood.

Snacks

Panama