Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

I’m reminded of grade school where we were taught the five distinct parts of a letter. One was the complimentary closing (alliteration at its best). It could be “Sincerely,” “Best regards,” “Yours truly” or a myriad of equally benign statements letting the reader know you are signing off.

Nobody writes real pen-to-paper letters anymore, but we still encounter the complimentary closing everywhere. Today, I ran into its morphed existence at the local supermarket.

“Take care,” the bag boy said as he handed me my few groceries. He looked me in the eyes too.

Take care. I like the sound of that. It’s gentle and upbeat. It beats “Have a good one,” which always prompts me to mentally ask, “Have a good what?” After all, the pronoun ‘one’ doesn’t have an antecedent. (I know, I know. Nobody cares!) It also beats the weary “Have a nice day.” Or “See ya!” Or “So long.”

In fact, the next time I write a letter – regardless of whether it’s the snail mail or the email variety – I think I’ll use “Take care” as my complimentary close.