Yes I have written, as in pen on paper, except I prefer a pencil. Someone told me today that he had written with a pencil for the first time in years this weekend. Strange, I thought, I prefer a pencil, it was created before the delete key and just as effective! Anyway, I looked back over some of the things i have written and my handwriting is atrocious (please appreciate that word, it took me a few tries to get my spell checker to agree with my spelling!) The more I use my computer, which is, 10 to 12 hours a day, the worse my handwriting gets. The other day I realized I couldn't remember how to make a cursive or written Q.
Think about it, when was the last time you tried a cursive Q? (A CursiveQ it sounds like a trendy drink in an upscale bar) The first and probably last time I remember writing a Q was in first grade on those newsprint tablets that were wider than they were tall, with the blue parallel lines and dotted lines in the middle. Perfectly proportioned so we could learn to make beautiful upper and lowercase letters. HA!I digress, sorry. My point, well one of them, is with my handwriting crumbling away, what else will we loose to technology. Oh, I already cant live without my ipod, camera and laptop, so technology is already taking over. I mean, when I type in Word, the program finishes and corrects word for me. Will there come a time I just have to think half of what I want to write and the rest will "appear" out of nowhere? What about your cell phone? Do you remember the numbers you have programed into the thing, I dont! I cant remember J's number at work, Jenny's work number, Rays cell number, Mother In Laws home number, its all stored in the small bit of plastic, rubber and metal that's smarter than me!!
What about books? I love to read, i love books period. Not just reading them, I love the look the feel, the smell of them. Have you ever gotten a brand new book, unopened by anyone else. I like to open it slowly, hear the pages break their staticee (yea I made that word up) bond to each other, and smell it, yea smell it. Next time you get a new book, smell it. My point here is if technology is killing my ability to write a cursive Q, and remember phone numbers, what is going to do to people who do not already love to read? Will their lives be dominated by TV? Reminds me of the BOOK, Fahrenheit 451, yes the book, not the movie or TV show. I love this book, its one of the classics they make you read in High School, except I devowered this book. I bought a new copy just to re-read it. Anyway, in this book, set sometime in the future the "Firemen" are employed to start fires in any home where books are found. Guy Montag is the fireman and his wife Mildred is someone who is totally dependent on sleeping pills and the 'ear buds' wirelessly and constantly conected to the TV. Guy accidentaly reads something in a book in a house he is supose to burn, he takes this book and so the story goes on. Is this where we are headed? Burning books and earbuds permenently in our ears.I'll end this with one of my favorite quotes to Montag "Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores." So smell your new books, they can smell you!
