I’ve gone organic. Before you think that means I’ll only eat chickens raised in some guy’s back yard on free-range worms and grubs, think again. Besides, I wouldn’t eat my father-in-law’s chickens. They’re layers and I like the eggs. I’m talking about my writing—more specifically the tools I am using to produce it.
It’s called “pen and paper”. I have my wife to thank for this, as I do most of the good things in my life. Not only is she a giver of good gifts, she is a good gift giver. She has this incredible ability to see not only what I will appreciate, but what will add a little more depth to my life.
This time it was the gift of a small hard-backed journal. She knows it is the perfect size for the small outside pocket of my backpack. I always carry it when we travel. She also knows two things I like to do are write and travel.
The last time I did any writing using pen and paper was in college. Computers were not widespread or affordable, especially for a college student subsisting on dry cereal and boxed mac and cheese. (store brand at that…not the fancy Kraft stuff) The laptop I had in those days was made by Mead and cost fifty cents at the bookstore.
I did have a typewriter, but that was only for producing the finished product and was far too heavy for any lap. Teachers who have had to attempt reading my handwriting have a different name for the typewriter. They call it a “translator”. Before I learned to type, they were using Navajo Code Talkers to figure it out. Between them and the Turing machine they somehow figured it out, which was good news for me. I actually had a teacher nickname me Chicken Scratch. I have often said one of the most useful thing I learned in high school was how to type. My teachers hardily agreed!
This is a good opportunity to point out how rapidly technology changes and how the next generation never realizes that the way things are isn’t the way they’ve always been. I think the last time my children wrote without the aid of computer chips was in first grade. Back then they were using pencil and paper. It was the same kind I used at their age and sadly for a couple of years after that.
You know the kind. It came in a tablet (of paper, not the kind you plug-in) and had wide lines with a dotted line in the middle. It’s often called penmanship paper. Clearly, I understood the paper part but never quite mastered the penmanship aspect. But it was great for making paper airplanes. That being said, it should come as no surprise I was not the valedictorian of my first grade.
Then there were the pencils. They were big enough to double as baseball bats during recess. I guess even the schools were trying to stretch a dollar. One thing I noticed about those first grade pencils is you never see them sharpened down to a nub the way the famous Number 2 pencil often is. I think that’s because the lead in them is so thick that one sharpen can last a long time. In fact, J.K. Rowling could have written all of her Harry Potter books with one without ever re-sharpening it. Well maybe not all fo them, but at least the first three.
Of course, it could be that beavers love those pencils for making dams and therefore often pilfer them from unattended pencil boxes. They are just the right size and they don’t have to go through the hassle of chewing down a tree. That’s harder, time consuming, and dangerous. Think how hard it is to yell “timber” with a mouth full of shavings. Harder than playing Fluffy Bunny with jumbo-sized marshmallows.
Besides, you have to use a stump grinder to put a point on one of those steroid-bloated scribble monsters. It’s not something every school can afford, nor is it something six-year-olds should be allowed to operate. (Hey, has anyone seen Billy?)
That isn’t an issue any more. At the moment my gel pen is moving across the page with ease. It is an extension of my brain as it effortlessly transmits my feeble thought to the page. Certainly much better than the pens of yesteryear, although I did love my Bic Banana pens. Remember those?
I know what you’re thinking: Gadget boy has gone retro. Well, yes…and no. I still like the many abilities that make my laptop the powerful tool that it is. But its many abilities also make it easy to become distracted and have my thoughts wander off the page and onto the ‘net. Email, net surfing, social media, and the lure of cat videos make it all too easy to lose focus on the task at hand be it a mindless meandering or real work.
Additionally, my journal doesn’t suffer from an addiction to electricity. There are no batteries that need to be replaced or recharged. There are no chargers or cords to locate when I want to write. Drop it and it still works. It is lightweight and passes through security at the airport without issue. Although I might freeze up and need to be rebooted, my journal never does.
I know it will one day run out of paper, but buying a new one is quite affordable. Then there’s the freedom from software licensing a la Apple and Microsoft, although I’m sure they’re working on it.
There is one thing about going organic that is a bit of a challenge for me: no built-in spellcheck. So, I’ve gone organic there, too. I still have the dictionary my folks gave me when I left for college. It’s not as convenient as hitting F7, but it offers a bonus spellcheck does not. Inevitably, I come across a “what the heck” word. That’s a word that I’ve never seen. Reading the definition is always interesting. Granted it is a distraction from the current project, but it is one that allows me to add ammo to my arsenal of communication.
I still like my high-tech pencil and will use it to translate this from analog to digital so that you can read it without a decoder ring. But when it comes to meandering through my thoughts, I really like this organic thing. Make no mistake, it is more than nostalgia or going retro. There is something about an empty page that pulls at me more than a blank screen.
It is a vacuum and I am Nature who abhors it and therefore must fill it.
