The Memo

 

I remember it clearly, years ago, a line

in a memo. It was at work, a memo at work.

I can’t recal what the memo was about, only

that it was a memo circulated to me and

several coworkers I knew.

The memo began with a line, “For your perusal.”

And I remember thinking I don’t have a perusal.

This memo then, I figured, was not intended for

me, but for perhaps a select few who had such a

thing.

I didn’t known anyone who owned or was asso-

ciated with a perusal. Was it a hairy, cross-eyed

creature with floppy ears, or more like a rodent

of sorts who scurried around a tiny treadmill in

its cage?

Huh, perusal indeed. This memo couldn’t have

been intended for me for in all my travels, in all

the zoos visited and wild life shows on TV, I had

never seen a perusal up close and personal

or visually on the periphery.

Was it a snipe like critter or perhaps a Yeti

which was widely hunted but never found?

Now this was way before computers, the

Internet and Google. So, I had to do a little

hunting myself. I knew one of the secretaries

at work must have an unabridged dictionary.

I looked up perusal to see what Webster had

to say. I flipped through the pages...ABCDEFG

HIJKLMNOP...P...P...P...pe·rus·al /pəˈro͞ozəl/

noun—the action of reading or examining

something.

I was somewhat disappointed. Perusal indeed.

You really do learn something new every day.

It was then I began to wonder, does everyone

else know what I now know? Perusal...Huh!

Still sounds like it would be a good name for

an animal, though. I went back to my desk

empowered with my newfound knowledge

and read the rest of the memo.

                      -30-

Chris Hanch 10-7-2020