Say goodbye on paper, on Twitter and on the street | By Miqui Otero


There are many ways to say goodbye, but none better than Charles Dickens: in the midst of a burst of laughter caused by one of his graces, he jumped to his feet, shook hands with his companion and left.

Perhaps he wanted to leave earlier, or stay a little longer, but the fact is that he chose that moment. It’s not easy to say goodbye, not even high (because you’re enjoying) not at all low (It’s similar to leaving a card table or a Nit Bus stop: you always think that the lucky break, or the bus, will arrive just when you give up).

There are very long goodbyes (which only demonstrates the low desire to leave and the high possibilities of returning soon) and other very hasty ones. I have experienced the best of the first in Galician taverns, where cubist formulas such as: “I’m leaving, I have to leave, it’s about time to go home” (spoiler: it stays). Of the second, one that has always seemed very sincere to me, although not always convenient, was that of the first president of the First Republic, Stanislaus Figueres, that a few months after taking office, during a council of ministers, he stood up to resign and released in Catalan: “Senyors, n’estic fins als collons de tots nosaltres” (and took the train to Paris). And then there’s one of the best ways to say goodbye: not saying goodbye.

For centuries the debate took place in meetings or bars, but now it applies to Twitter. There are those who say goodbye and make it known with a long manifesto that details how toxic that place is, where they no longer find debate or consolation. It is the equivalent of “Well, I’m leaving!” normally answered in chorus (after the bang of the door slamming) with a “well, okay”. When someone says goodbye to this social network like this, they automatically receive (if they continue to watch their interactions, which I suspect happens 99% of the time) the taunts of those who remain. They do not admit that, despite the melodramatic door slam, in reality the one who leaves offers very true reasons (although they are not the ones that have pushed him to leave in reality). No one who wants to stay a couple more rounds tolerates someone else giving up on time. And this happens because the one who stays is looking for something, because the food is there, because he has an addiction, because he has no place to return to or, in some cases, but very few, because he is having a really good time (if the reason is the last one, you usually won’t mind if someone leaves).

He said that before taking place on social networks, the discussion about whether to say goodbye or not was cultivated in other spheres, perhaps higher. In the French high society of the 18th century, “sans adieu” proliferated; (no goodbye). Saying goodbye to hosts or guests in person was frowned upon. In a way, it was like verbalizing a (real) desire not to be there, with them. Hence the expression of “going to the French & rdquor ;, that has mutated in our times to anglicisms such as ‘ghosting’ or to comic phrases like ‘smoke bomb’. By the way, the French, for that same flight, use ‘filer à l’anglaise’ (the Americans: ‘an Irish goodbye’… and I could continue crossing countries and cultures until revealing the origin of the Russian salad).

Related news

If this farewell, mine, the one formulated by this column, is long, it is because I do not want to leave so much and because, if I am allowed, I will return shortly. After six years of uninterrupted columnism (August included), I will be away for a few months. I intend to write (“get the novel on track”, I call it) and a little silence will not hurt me, because it turns out that if you talk all the time you do not listen, not even to yourself, like someone who eats without stopping thinks he is always hungry, but in reality he has forgotten what it is to feel it.

So it’s not you, it’s me. Without melodramas or tacos, let’s say goodbye half laughing, with a joke about the price of electricity or with a shared memory. I’m going to shake your hand: wipe off the donut sugar and croissant shavings first. Now.


Leave a Comment