Reading Signatures

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Remember when you were first learning to sign your name? You wanted it to be a thing of beauty, a reflection of yourself, crafted with confidence and style.

Remember, Grant, how carefully you signed your first driver’s license? Oh, my social security card.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, when I was 18, I spent so long working on that capital letter G. I wanted it to be perfect. And I still have that, and it’s very different from what I sign now.

Yeah, exactly. That was my point, that when I’m signing a receipt now, a credit card receipt, or worse yet, one of those signature pads at the grocery, my name might as well be…

Mine looks like an electrocardiogram. Just up and down, peaks and valleys. Just flatlining there at the end.

I’ve been thinking about this because Daniel Wheeler has an article in the Atlantic Monthly called Signing Off, the Slow Death of the Signature in a Pen Code World. And he notes that there was a time when we took our signatures seriously because we believe that they said something about who we are.

But in part because of technology, all that’s changing. And, I mean, I’ve seen people write little smiley faces on their credit card receipts. I’ve seen parents let their kids sign the signature pad at the grocery.

And I don’t know. I mean, I might as well sign, you know, Martina Barnette-Lover or something. You’ve done that, right?

I would never do a thing like that, Grant. It’s kind of a small space for comedy. I just sign it and move on. People online behind me.

Okay, you’re admitting it, yeah. But, you know, I’m starting to think that maybe our signatures are reflections of ourselves. It’s just the fact that we’re all in a hurry.

Do you think that’s what it is? Or maybe we realize that it doesn’t matter. Well, that’s the other part. A signature is kind of a social construct.

We used to all agree that it was really important. And now we’re like, wait a second. I can get the same effect from just sending an email that I don’t have to sign.

Well, that’s true. Maybe we have no faith left in the signature as a legal imprint. I think we have very little.

And then when I get back to having to sign something, like signing a book or signing a thank you note, it really takes a little bit of practice to get back there.

Yeah, yeah. My signature tends to look like a big muddle. You know, it’s got like thumbprints and smudges and it looks like a kid’s build is into ink.

Well, this is the place where we talk about words and how we use them and how we write them. Our phone number is 877-929-9673, or you can send us email to words@waywordradio.org.