Write On!

If you know that this sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet, you are probably Baby Boomer age or older and may have spent time in elementary school writing it to practice your handwriting skills. Fast forward to today when school aged kids can find their way around a computer keyboard at lightning speed and can type a text in record time using only their thumbs, but find handwriting a bit of a mystery. As someone who prefers good old pen and paper for getting thoughts across, this idea strikes horror in my heart and has moved me to start a crusade to Bring Back Handwriting!

Putting Pen To Paper

When I told my husband that I was going to post about handwriting he got a funny look on his face. I think this is because he knows that my fondness (he may say obsession) for handwriting goes well beyond the actual act of handwriting, to pencils, paper, pens and such. He knows I can easily while away an afternoon in Staples testing out all the pens and pencils, perusing the stacks of paper, picking out the perfect eraser and deciding which color post-it notes I like best. He is never so worried about our credit card bill as when I’ve been shopping at an office supply store. And don’t get me started on journaling notebooks. I can spend hours online just looking at all the choices.

Memories and Mindfulness

But I digress. Back to my Crusade. When doing research I was happy to discover that I am not alone in my Bring Back Handwriting Crusade. Even an app called the Art of Manliness recently featured an article that called handwriting a “manly art!” I don’t know if that is true, but they do say when you write by hand you can improve your memory and, as a member of the senior set, I embrace anything that will help help me remember why I went to the grocery store.

Some other ‘fun facts” and thoughts I plan to use in my Crusade:

• Handwriting allows you to express your personality in a way that typed words cannot. The best example I can think of for demonstrating this is our father’s handwriting. I think you can see from his signature that he was a strong, decisive, no nonsense kind of guy.

• Handwriting eliminates distractions by getting you away from your smartphone and computer and all those games, apps and texts. Your significant other will thank you for this!
• The act of handwriting information helps with memory and recall. When in high school and university I discovered that handwriting my notes was an effective way for me to study. I wrote and rewrote so many notes, I think I singlehandedly kept some paper companies in business by the time I graduated.
• Handwriting can be a meditative practice. For many years I’ve handwritten my thoughts daily in a journal which helps me start my day in a calm, centered way. I am hoping that this little nugget of information will be the one that convinces my family that I’m not so “woo-woo” after all.
• Experts say children compose essays more creatively and faster when handwriting than when using a keyboard. I’m hoping this idea will help my grandkids forgive me when I go on another rant about the importance of learning handwriting in school.

Love Letters

And if I haven’t yet convinced you that handwriting is a good thing and not to be lost, I have one last thought. Recently I was going through some old papers and came across a birthday card that mom had sent several years before her passing. Just seeing her handwriting immediately brought a picture of her to my mind and the memories of her (and the tears) started flowing. It felt like she was right there with me wishing me Happy Birthday. There isn’t quite the same emotional impact when I read emails she wrote to me.

I hope I’ve convinced you to join my Bring Back Handwriting Crusade. I am considering setting up a Go Fund Me page to finance the cost of all the pens and paper I will need to further the cause. And in case you’re wondering who did the beautiful handwriting at the top of this page – it belongs to Big Sis. I’m currently in negotiations with her to be the face (or should I say hand) of my Crusade!

We plan on publishing a new post every Monday so stay tuned for our next one entitled “The Not To Do List.”