A while ago I was composing an email to my son.
Early in the missive I began a sentence then changed my mind about what I wanted to say. I hit <enter> a couple of times to create a gap, then continued from where I’d left off. The paragraph now read "....the theory being ......." I had completely forgotten that my original contribution was still sitting there, just off the bottom of the screen.
I finished the brief story I was telling and signed off in my usual way,
"Cheers ...."
and pressed <send>
The following day my son replied to my mail.
His final comment was "when did you become a thought being ?"
And, of course, I realised that I always had been !
By now you will have deduced that my email ended :
"Cheers.....
the thought being"