A postit note

The task is done; the peace is signed,
Fearful tensions now unwind,
Peace in our time! the foolish cry,
The wise will keep their powder dry.
— Bob Harrison, Ashford, Kent, 27 Feb. 98, on BBC Ceefax.

It’s a new financial year, which means a new set of accounts here in the UK where I currently am staying.  I threw out a bunch of papers from 2008, and then went through my filing cabinet throwing out a bunch of old bills.

But attached to one of them was a stray postit note.  On it were the lines above.  I thought them worthy of record back then; I think them worthy of it now.

I don’t recall the crisis that must have provoked that dry comment.  The BBC’s teletext service, Ceefax, only just exists now, and its letters page is a memory, gone with the analogue TV service.

We forget, perhaps, that the majority of human thought and communication passes away, unrecorded.  Not all of it deserves to.

Share

2 thoughts on “A postit note

Leave a Reply