There was a time when cursive writing was drilled into every young first grader. You learned to draw to become accustomed to moving the crayon or pencil on the page to create a picture of what was in your mind's eye. Then you learned to print letters and then put them in order to create words and eventually make sentences that communicated not only what was in your mind's eye, but in your heart. Eventually, cursive was introduced because it facilitated faster writing, faster and faster. At first you were careful to write clearly and with attention to ledgibility. There were typewriters of course, but they were not portable. I remember practicing my signature alone for hours. Seeing my name on the page was magical. It was part of my identity.
Then along came computers and word prosessors and now we find ourselves not needing to write much. Cursive is fading into history (oh rue the day!). And when we do write, it is barely ledgible. So we turn to printing. And our signature becomes a scrawl. Pen to paper is I fear becoming a lost art.
This morning I was writing in my morning pages journal. I found myself thinking about the importance of crossing my t's and dotting my i's. Without the cross, the t is a pole or an l or a number l. The undotted i is impossible on my computer. Trying writing "it". If you don't know it was intended to be "it", it does not become "it", just lines on the page that make no sense. I began to get lost is this and found that the words lost there meaning and if you concentrate to intensely on the writing, the writing becomes more than the ideas and thoughts the writing was meant to communicate.
Iyeeee!
So don't get me started on spelling. As the title of this blog shows, you can still communicate without correct spelling. Grammar, too, seems less important. What I lament is the lost art of writing; art as is caring, paying attention to detail and wanting to create something of lasting beauty or meaning. I know I send these blogs out with errors such as misspellings and unintended bad grammarical sins. That is the nature of blogs. Proofreading is out. Just get your thoughts down and out. For that I am guilty as charged. Call it stream of consciousness or free-flowing falderal. Can you understand what I am saying? Then my communication is successful flaws and all.
So in the end I guess I am saying we can get lost in the crossing of "i's" and dotting of "t's". We can focus on the mechanics and overlook the intent. Both are important. But ultimately it is the message over the vehicle it is delivered in. As they say, its not what's on the outside that counts, but what's on the inside. Don't judge a book by its cover....and so on.
Oh, ya, please don't hesitate to let me know about glaring errors in grammar or spelling, especially is they are disturbingly bad. I love to write and I love to learn how to do it better!
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