BY ROBIN CARSON | Editor

The results of this year ’ s writing contest are in this issue , with winning entries published in full having had only the lightest of edits . On behalf of news & views , thank you to everyone who entered , congratulations to the winners , and special thanks to Inge Coates and Bob Heyworth for organizing this year ’ s event . Thanks are also due to our judges who found excellent quality in every entry .

There is an unseen bonus for the entrants to this contest — or to others like it . The bonus is that writing for others is a risk : a ‘ tightrope without a net ,’ I ’ ve heard it called . When we were students , we all walked that tightrope many times ; in our work lives , probably not so often ; as retirees , not so much , I think . To write knowing that what you write will be judged takes real courage , and finding that courage is a bonus .

I ’ ve always thought of writing as a kind of mega-mnemonic . Because others are in on how the mnemonic works , they can share in the memory that writing represents , just as , say , the knotted strings of the ancient Incan quipu could both aid memory and transmit a message . As an aide-memoire , writing is vital . The standing joke is that the worst lie that old folks tell themselves is , " I don ’ t have to write this down ."

But it is in the transmission of thoughts and ideas that writing is so important . Voltaire said , " Writing is the painting of the voice ." And it is the voices found in writing that lift it above merely being a process of providing a record . The oldest writing consists of business records ; but almost as old is the amazing epic , Gilgamesh , a complex story and poem . The writing of ancient Egypt , opened to us by the Rosetta Stone , shines light on a wondrous era ; Shakespeare still lives in his writing ; and I hear the voice of my late mother in the recipe I used for my waffles last Sunday . Writing might just be a mega-mnemonic , but it is one that carries within it the voices of its users .

The best part of writing is that it provides a permanent record of transient thought . Those things that matter can be recorded and cherished and shared . That is why all of you reading these transient thoughts of mine should consider stepping out on the tightrope-with-no-net , as the entrants to our contest have done , and write down those things that you would like to share with your great-great-grandchildren . Who are you ? How do you live ? What is your world like ? Wouldn ’ t you be thrilled to have such a piece of writing from an ancestor written in the voice of that person ? I would .

The only trick to getting words on a page is actually putting them there . Believe me , procrastination is not your friend here . Conjure up a mental picture of someone you would like to talk to , and talk to them with your writing . Pen , computer , golf pencil — none of that matters . Neither does it matter if you write a memoir , a letter , a poem or the truth in thinly-disguised fiction . What does matter is your voice , your thoughts and your willingness to share them both .

news & views WINTER 2016 | 11