Tuesday 16 December 2014

Tidings of . . .

. . . well, whatever.  It is at Christmas that many people write down what has been happening to them and theirs and send out the missive with the cards.  I do miss the round robin that my mother received every Christmas from a cousin of mine far away.  I always enjoyed seeing what he and, more usually, his children had been doing through the year.  I smiled and sometimes laughed out loud at the boasting absurdities but, as I said, I always enjoyed reading those two or three pages.

Some, possible many, people sneer at those round robins.  Yes, of course they need to read with a man-sized pinch of salt, but I always think it's flattering that the sender thinks the person who receives the news is interested enough to read it.  I see it as a sign that the writer thinks well of the addressee.  Yeah, I know, I'm being a bit - well, as if I've swallowed the milk of human kindness or some other noxious substance.

But are we not all, each and every one of us, just a little bit interested in what our friends and relatives are up to?  And not only friends and family; some people (not me, I hasten to add) pour over the gossip columns in the newspapers.  And some of us - heaven help us - read of the activities of people we have never met and who are known to us only electronically while we write about our own lives for others to read!  A sort of every day round robin.

So you can stop your sneering right now!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

I miss them too BP - a friend of mine used to send one each year along with a photo of her children but since the advent of FB I guess she thinks we know everything already. If you want a laugh then look at the side of my blog for The Adventures of a Middle Aged Matron - a lovely vicars wife who write a very funny blog has done a round robin post.

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

Most times I can leave off reading them.
This year, somehow, is different.
I have enjoyed reading the few missives received.


*BTW - I DO know what you mean.