Yesterday I was invited to lunch by my dear friend, the wonderful Ms Anna Scher, of the Anna Scher Theatre. She is an amazing woman and wonderful company; articulate and educated, it’s a delight to spend time with her.
I absolutely love Anna, for a myriad of reasons, but not least of all because she has impeccable manners and she doesn’t “do” emails or texts. If Anna needs to talk to you she’ll phone you and if she wants to tell you something she will write you a letter. She’s one of the few people I get letters from nowadays, and that makes me sad. I used to love getting letters in different coloured, hand-written envelopes and the joy of opening them can’t be compared to the irritating, warning ping of the mobile to inform me that I have a text message.
Anna’s also a great one for writing thank you letters. You see, she has manners. How many people nowadays bother to write a thank-you letter? Very, very few. Far too few. And that reminds me. I must send my thank you letter to her as soon as I finish this blog entry.
I know I’m old, but I really do mourn the passing of these old-fashioned values. For me, it’s all part of the dumbing down and loss of grace that’s gone on over the last twenty years or so. We become more ill-mannered and this is now reflected in our language, which has become coarser and less articulate. That this happens in the street is one thing; that it’s happening in public information announcements is something else.
Why, oh why, can’t the NHS use the word “faeces” or “stools” in those bowel cancer commercials on TV and on the radio. Why do they have to use the word “poo”? If you look at the actors they’re all in their sixties and above; none of them would talk about “poo”, so why is that the word used in the voiceover? It’s patronising and condescending.
Someone should start a campaign!!
