Joined-up Writing

Joined-up Writing

“Ooh, I like your joined-up writing!” exclaimed the dentist’s assistant as I signed the NHS form. “I just print my name on forms, but in any case, I’m normally typing on the computer, not using a pen.”

I smiled at her somewhat sadly, remembering how much trouble my generation’s primary school teachers had taken to show us how to hold a pen and to write neatly between the lines on the page.

This little incident came back into my mind a few weeks later at a family reunion dinner in Seahouses on the north-east coast of England.  We had come from different parts of the UK to celebrate my sister Freda’s 70^th birthday.  In the restaurant I sat beside Brian from Manchester and David from Belfast.  The three of us share a common love of writing.
“Do you compose your articles straight on to the computer?”  Brian asked me.

“No,” I replied.  “I do it in my joined-up writing!  I use my one of my favourite brightly coloured pencils with its own eraser on the top.  That lets me edit my draft much more easily and quickly.  I’m too slow on the computer, so I just use that for the final copy.”

David laughed incredulously at the thought of using pencils in this day and age.  However, I defended my old-fashioned method, adding that I treasured hand-written letters from friends – so much more personal and intimate than typed emails.

Early the next morning, as I packed my suitcase, I thought again about the pleasure of writing.   Relaxed after the week’s holiday, I was now looking forward to continuing my latest project at home: a series of true stories which I wanted to entitle The Golden Network.  As in my first book Joyful Witness, the subject matter was of astonishing coincidences which I have experienced, often in answer to prayer when I have been in difficult circumstances. I wanted to share my belief that the Holy Spirit, in order to comfort us and strengthen our faith in God, uses a spiritual network, an interconnected system of people and things.  To illustrate my text, I had begun a special computer file of pictures to be used as ‘experiential evidence’.

At breakfast I gathered up some little souvenirs of Seahouses which I had left on the kitchen table.  One was a postcard which I had bought after the Sunday service in the local church.  It showed one of the beautiful stained-glass windows: the sun rising over the sea, a lighthouse and, in the foreground, a fishing boat with a fishing net containing some fish. The prominence of the fishing net was a reminder of the fishing industry which had flourished in Seahouses until the mid-20^th century.

But it had, of course, another, deeper significance.  Gazing at the net, I thought, “Network.  That can be divided into two words: Net Work.”  I realised that the first and last times Jesus had spoken to his disciples they had been working with their fishing nets.  On the first occasion he had said to Peter and Andrew, “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” (Matthew 4:19, NIV).  Then, after his crucifixion he appeared to them by the sea of Tiberius, calling to them where to cast their nets.  When, to their surprise, they made a large catch, they realised that their helper was the resurrected Jesus. 

“I’d like to include this lovely picture in The Golden Network”, I thought as I packed the postcard into my rucksack.

On my return home a few hours later, I discovered a large pile of mail.  One envelope was addressed in a neat handwriting which I did not recognise.  On opening it I discovered a thank you card from my daughter-in-law’s aunt.  I had given her bed and breakfast the previous week when she was travelling to Glasgow from the north of England.

I gasped in amazement when I saw the front of the card…!