Signatures

One of my jobs is to receive emails from people who are going to be hiking the John Muir Trail and want to send a resupply to the Muir Trail Ranch since we’re halfway between Yosemite and Mt Whitney. I then use their name, address, and so on to put together a set of mailing labels and a claim check for their resupply. It is a file they can then print, cut up, and stick on the package. There is a bar code that gets scanned when their package arrives at the ranch and they get an automatically-generated email saying their stuff arrived. When things work, which is most of the time, it eases the workload on everyone involved.

Many of the emails are sent with a “signature,” a listing of the sender’s phone numbers, address, and so on. Some people personalize their signature with a favorite saying or poem, like this one I received today from a woman in Auburn, California:

Listen to the mustn'ts child
Listen to the don’ts.
Listen to the shouldn’ts
The impossibles, the won’ts.
Listen to the never haves
Then listen close to ME
ANYTHING can happen child
ANYTHING CAN BE.

~ Shel Silverstein

Don’t you just love Shel Silverstein?