Sign Here

There was a time when signing your name was as good as your word. A firm handshake and a signature sealed the deal. It seemed to work for the Declaration of Independence.

Times are different and you and your background are checked and analysis to get a loan or a phone. You can swipe some scrawling on a touch screen but can anyone read it?

Dipping your quill into the ink you could scratch your name onto a piece of parchment for a promise to pay for a house or a car or a college education. The same signature promised a lifetime marriage and then a final divorce. It was all legal if you signed your name.

Perhaps we have forgotten how to write our name? Perhaps we have forgotten how to write? Perhaps we have fallen into the hash tag accounts of profiles we have forgotten who we are?

I am ole school. I still write paper checks. At the first of the month I pull out all the bills sent to me by the city for the gas and the water I’ve used and the power company for how many hours I’ve been on the computer and the credit card company that charges me a fee for not using them and the standard monthly fee for my cell phone that is off most of the time. I pull out the checkbook and copy the funds and then sign my name to a piece of paper that I tear out and put in an envelope with a copy of the bill and place a stamp on the outside, sealed with a lick, then ride over to the local mail receptacle and drop in hundreds of dollars without any cash. As long as the postal service delivers on time, I won’t get a late fee.

Now I know you are saying all that can be done online and not have to waste the paper (trees) and I agree. My Internet is automatically removed from my account with yearly increases and no notification.

Still I like the ritual of a monthly gathering my expenses and writing my name. The scribble has changed through the years.

Years ago (in the dark ages) checks written and endorsed were not accepted if the signature did not match what was on record. Similar times for sure, but face recognition will soon become how we sign our name. I better not shave!