Back in the days when people kept secrets, and privacy was guarded preciously, people kept personal journals. Some kept diaries, which were even more private. High School girls bought little books with locks on them and recounted the whimsy or heartbreak of each passing day. “Dear Diary….” Diaries were rarely shared, but journals, well, they were the grandparents of blogs.
Since there have been pen and ink, people have recorded whatever they deemed worthy: Feelings, events, scientific exploration. As a family historian of sorts, I appreciate the written records that these people left. I have the letters my grandfather wrote to my grandmother in WWI, and I can see where he hesitated sometimes on a page. Sometimes, the intensity of the thoughts being conveyed are also conveyed in the penmanship – more or less careful, more or less pressure on the page.
Letters were carefully handcrafted, lovingly written, and gratefully received. We are still touched when we receive that thoughtful sympathy note or thank you card, showing the time and attention that the sender put into communicating a personal message.
Our penmanship says a lot about us. Whether we are detailed or careless, happy or sad, and many other traits are found there. There’s a whole fascinating science, graphology, that studies this, and analyzes handwriting traits. Our penmanship is very personal, although we were all taught the same basic handwriting skills in elementary school. I’ll bet many of us remember excitement at graduating from block printing to “cursive” writing.
Fast forward to the 21st century. Most children today are learning to communicate primarily with a keyboard (sometimes a very tiny one) rather than a pencil or pen. As a result, an increasing number of US school districts are abandoning the teaching of cursive script writing altogether. I find this very sad, and a little troubling. If they can’t write script, they will also have trouble reading it, and so much beauty is found in the original handwritten documents of our past.
On the flip side of this block font movement are the people whose sensibilities embrace penmanship and all it brings with it. A font is actually being developed to mimic Sigmund Freud’s handwriting. And there are good arguments for continuing to take the tine to write our thoughts out in long hand sometimes.
So much of the art of living is lost in shortcuts. I keep paper notebooks where I scribble my thoughts for future blogs, notes about family history research, and questions for my financial planner. I love doing my daily puzzles with a pen rather than on my Kindle with a stylus. I doodle in the margins of the newspaper while I’m thinking, and it’s relaxing.
Do I use my electronic devices to save data later? Sure. My family tree software is the well-organized repository for an incredible amount of information. I cull through my random thoughts and type blogs. I have Excel spreadsheets for the numbers in our financial goals.
But there’s just something about noodling things out in those notebooks that nobody else ever looks at. Sketching out my random thoughts and feelings, before I choose to share some of them. In my own (sometimes not so) fine hand, I work through the chaos and find my message. It’s almost therapeutic, and certainly something I hope to continue as long as my hands, and my mind allow.
My grandchildren still write handwritten thank you notes, but they also Facebook me and do most of their writing on their phones and iPads. I hope as they get older, they will appreciate the consideration of the handwritten word as well. I always will.
The Retiring Sort 
You must be logged in to post a comment.