The Lost Art of Hand Writing

For a couple of years now I have used a computer for everything from writing articles, to communicate, to playing games and to printing addresses onto envelopes. My laptop computer is ne'er far away, it is ordinarily by my side or on my knees, and the furthest it ever gets from my side is once I am on the toilet or in the swimming pool. Recently although I had to write a personal letter to my mother, simply to say hi sort of thing and I thought that a written letter would-be not be quite the right thing for the occasion.

Upon production the decision to write I assumed that it would-be be a comparatively simple task to accomplish but all was not as easy as I 1st thought! Finding paper and pen proven quite a hurdle to climb over. The only paper I could find in the home was reams of unseamed printer paper and several ornate toilet paper, my old and once-trusted fountain pen had more ink on the outside than in and the pen with a naked lady body simply seemed so wrong to use!

I toddled off to the stationary shop to get the necessary and two hours later I repaired to the task in hand. I had my pens, I had my paper and I had a lovely cup of hot coffee to sip whilst jot down my thoughts and life for my parent to see in due course!

Five minutes later I gave up! My hand was sore; it ached all the way up to the elbow and felt like I had simply started to use it after six weeks in a cast!

My five minute foray into victimisation a pen gave to me a lot to think about, apart from a sore hand that is. It brought fond memories flooding back of once I used to sit on planes, trains and buses with a tablet perked up on my knees! I used to jot down notes simply about exciting things happening on my journeys; I used to let my thoughts wander whilst in motion and to later use these foolish thought to do an article. I remembered how I used to build up ideas for futurity essays or articles by defrayment hours scribbling and dawdling, contemplative and playing till hours, nay days later a finished product would-be surface out of the mess.

I remembered how I used to be a really relaxed person! I was often found curled up in front of the television or in a hammock in the garden, nestled up under the covers or lying on the grass! I recalled how I used to turn my thoughts slowly and artfully into a product that I was happy with. And then two years ago that stopped up like a bullet in the brain! My hobby turned, with a simple purchase of a laptop computer computer, into an automatic rush to develop and to produce without proper regard or actual psychological feature that the finished product ready-made any sense what-so-ever. Articles were started and finished quickly, without any searches for alternative discussion, pause or reflection and publicized without fanfare or enjoyment that I had once known. But I was so busy becoming a machine, simply like the one that I had bought, that I did not realize and had no warning of what was going on. It was only this recent handwriting exercise that brought all that I had lost back to me like the flood from a damn broken!

Writing by hand has regrettably become a lost art form that may ne'er resurface! The computer and the keyboard, phones and mobile PDF devices have taken over from basic handwriting for thing longer than one sentence. For many an the simple ability to correct mistakes, to alter and to expand documents with ease, the fact that most written notes have to be entered into a machine anyway and the fact that it is fashionable puts handwriting into the annals of history without second thought or hindrance! But what computers do is to take away the enjoyment, the fun and the relaxation that is similar with a pen and paper. Computers are machines that are so useful yet have taken the fun out of writing in one fell swoop.

I still put out the same number of articles, essays, pieces, etc. as I did before. Common person has recommended since my laptop computer initiation that the quality of my works have diminished and for sure I now spend more time on else tasks or chores than I did pre-laptop times, but the pleasure has been removed.

I am now contemplative a return to happier times. To write more by hand so that I may re-experience the leisure that was so more part of it all. But 1st I must strengthen up my right hand as five minutes is simply not long enough!

About The Author

Ieuan Electrical engineer - Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineer in the Businessperson Navy he has sailed the earth for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes simply about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.

seadolby.com

ieuandolby@seadolby.com

This article was announce on Apr 03, 2005