“Under separate cover” is one of my favorite phrases. To me it suggests something more than a message in an envelope separate from the one which has the message using the phrase. Why does it charm? Not sure. I can think of alternative possibilities for its use, such as: people under different tents at a gala; people sleeping in separate beds; a diary versa emails to the boss. Doesn’t help, alternate uses isn’t explaining why something registers in the head, yet gives no explanation as to why. Why does a song suddenly appear that hasn’t been heard in eons. Having lunch the other day I heard Diana Krall singing “You Go to My Head.” I haven’t listened to her in months. And it isn’t just sound I experience. I can smell a musty cellar for no apparent reason. I have no particular love or hatred for cellars, musty or not.

We have a lot of stuff in our heads and some of it’s junk. You might put “under separate cover” in the junk category.

I seem to be heading nowhere with this. 

What is the point? We have likes and dislikes with no idea why. 

One of these days I might figure out why under separate cover is so pleasing to me. A possibility is it has something to do with keeping aspects of life separate from others. I can be a pussy cat, but I’m also a bitch. Those personae are under separate covers. A person could encounter one of me, but might never meet the other. Being introverted, privacy is important and “everyone” doesn’t need to know “everything” about me.

I suppose thinking of this will demand I snoop around in my head for other separate cover areas. Who knows what interesting quirks lurk in our private spaces? Who knows what I’ll find crawling out from under a rock. Exploring, discovering can be unnerving as well as fun. 

Let me know if you come up with some interesting separate cover discoveries about yourself.