BYE! TAKE CARE! KEEP IN TOUCH!

The three most over-used under-sincere words in the English language are "Keep in touch."

Everyone says it when someone leaves someplace of regular attendance - school, a job, a religious group, sports team - basically anytime you leave someplace. I may have even said it to the barista at Starbucks the other day.

Everyone says it. But how many people really mean it? Probably not many. I just wrote a letter to a friend in another city and this friend commented how I was one of a select few people who still kept in touch.

The point was really hammered home when I ran into this guy that I had met sitting on the same volunteer committee back in 2004. Over lunch back in 2004, he told me that he and the chair of the committee, a woman named Patricia, were friends, and that she would take him to various fundraising events and so on. When I bumped into him last week he told me he hasn't seen her since they last sat on that charity committee. While we are all busy people with our own lives, I was still a little surprised.

But I suppose it is way too difficult to keep in touch with everyone that you meet. And those people that you do choose to keep in touch with, probably have had an impact on you in some sort of positive meaningful way. I know that those people with whom I keep in touch have...