At work today, a colleague experienced a run of technical glitches with her computer. A piece she had been working on for some time seemed to just disappear. She was understandably exasperated, and as another staff member tried to help, tempers flared. Thankfully all was recovered soon after and everyone calmed down; normal programming resumed.
It just got me thinking... One thing you will never experience with a handwritten letter is a technical glitch. About the worst that could happen is that your pen runs out of ink... but pens are easy to come by. If I'm writing a letter in a cafe and my pen runs out (as has happened), I can ask a waitress for the lend of a pen. You can't do that if the laptop crashes!
I enjoy technology... or rather, I enjoy the things technology allows me to do. But the simplicity of pen and paper is perhaps the most brilliant technology humans have ever come up with. With a pen and paper you can give someone solace, or hope. You can make them laugh, or cry. You can tell a story, or make a confession. And because it is written in your own hand, it seems more important, more thoughtful, more meaningful somehow.
At work, I sit in front of a computer for much of the day and I write. I seem to write quite well... as I'm employed to do it... yet I could rarely say that I 'love' the words I create in that environment. However, when I sit and write at a table, with my curly hand-writing spreading across the page I feel a real sense of oneness, satisfaction and yes 'love'. I love letters.
Love from Kaz
No comments:
Post a Comment