In two worlds

The majority of my communications are done over email. I get about 200 hundred emails a day that need varying degrees of response from clicking a few buttons cloaked in secrecy like the Wizard of Oz to sending long, rambling technobabble infused emails that seem to grow more acronym-filled with each click of the send button. The problem is that my personal emails are handled using the same computers, same applications, and during the same (overly long) span of time I spend in my office... behind the green curtain.

Salutations and farewells have started to blend together. How easy is it to insert "IX XC," "Pax," "Under His mercy," or similar parting phrase right before sending an email? I've caught myself more than a few times with my finger hovering over Send; staring in surprise at the 2-3 word phrase that has insinuated itself onto my screen.

This sort of thing can be embarrassing. Not in that I'm unduly meek in announcing my Christian beliefs, but that I'm cross-habituating myself with secular and religious practices without thought. Think of the times you've finished a phone call to an acquaintance with "Love ya." and only realized it too late. Or calling ones boss "mom" or "dad" as I heard on NPR last week 28% of people in the U.S. have done.

No solution presents itself. I type fully aware that sometime soon I'll be sending that incongruous farewell with who knows what sort of reaction.

Love ya, mom.