Web Word for March-- Screed
Have you sent a screed lately?
What say you?
You don't know what a screed is?
(No, it's not when we loose it and yell at our kids that's a screech.)
Actually I didn't know what a screed was either and I think I know why.
You see a screed is a lengthy informal letter (or essay). We who e-mail or faster and briefer yet, text our friends and family wouldn't consider when we want to chat with our people of grabbing a pen and paper and in a long written discourse tell them what's on our minds. Even the thought causes me to shutter, mostly because of time restraints. Okay and also because I'm lazy when it comes to longhand conversations.
I do though love getting handwritten pieces from friends. I always think, "They took this time for me." It takes a certain amount of discipline and effort to commit our thoughts to paper and not to give in and take the speedy Internet way out. Don't get me wrong I love the convenience of e-mail and have come to depend on it to add wings to my words.
Yet there's something so touching about a person's handwriting. It's so distinctive. It's the next best thing to being with them. Our handwriting is a part of us, which is perhaps why screed comes out of the meaning "torn fragment." It's as if we have torn off a part of us and put it in an envelope to send to someone. To this day I can spot my dad, mom, and grandmother's handwriting on old correspondence from a distance. It's almost like a visit when I hold even their signatures (they died years ago).
Our handwriting is really part of our legacy so even though I'm not advocating giving up speedy transmissions I am suggesting that once in a while someone we love would enjoy a screed from us.
Write On, Patsy
P.S. Don't overfill their mailboxes or they may move. ;-)
|
