Try A Scrapbook

It seems just as fresh as when you first read it

I don't know if I have gone back to my childhood, some would say I have never left it, but I have started to keep a scrapbook. I read quite a lot of newspapers these days and I find that by reading yesterdays papers again this morning I come across interesting items that I had previously missed. Why this is I don't know. Am I more mentally alert say at six in the morning than at any other time of the day? My scrapbook now contains items of all sorts and the remarkable thing is that if you read something that you first read say a month ago then, when you read it again in your scrapbook, it's as if you were reading it for the first time. It seems just as fresh as when you first read it.

The difference of course between reading a newspaper and a scrapbook is that your scrapbook only contains items of interest, at least to you; the newspaper as we all know is three parts rubbish. I strongly recommend you to start your own scrapbook and you will find the best place to look for 'titbits' is in some of the more upmarket papers; the tabloids in my view are a waste of time. Another point is that when, like the other day when I was trying to explain something I had read to someone, I realised I had forgotten some relevant bits. As a result I made a hash of it so it was back to the scrapbook where I was able to look up the newspaper article again then back to my friend and this time I made more sense.

This friend of mine was the same person who some few weeks ago was on about Education, saying a lot of youngsters should be allowed to leave school at 14, and I wrote one of my pieces about this. A day or so later I was reading an article about this very subject, leaving school at 14, and how brilliantly this was written compared to mine. Here was a professional at work; I'm just a amateur. Sure enough this has gone into my scrapbook and it will still make interesting reading in six months time. Also, I can learn from this article how you should compose the piece you are writing. It's not what you say that counts, but how you say it that matters.

Another piece that has gone into my book was about Dentists; where if you go private you get a note every six months saying you should go along for a check up. I thought about this and decided what a good idea if our Church did the same. I can just imagine the Vicar sending his note: 'Your absence from our Church is causing us all here much concern, please give this matter your immediate attention as it is some time since you last visited us'. When you think of it it's cheaper to go to Church than go to the Dentist and it's less painful. Unless of course the Vicar is having an off day, when you might wish you were at the Dentists. Les Lawrence