A Lost Art

How often do you write? As in, pen on paper, free form, NOT typing (as I'm apparently doing right now).

I have a notebook at work - most of us probably do - but rarely write anything in it. It's just so much easier to jut down notes in an Outlook email and keep to-do lists and appointments in Google Desktop. Forget "writing" a friend - that's what we have txt msgs and emails for. Letters are so WW II.

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine had a birthday. In the card I wrote a couple paragraphs in addition to the usual "happy birthday!". A few days later, I received a "thank you" card in the mail from her with a long hand-written note. All of a sudden it took me back 20, 30 years. A HAND-written note! Someone put pen to paper and WROTE these sentences! It's become so rare these days when practically everything's electronically input.

Her handwriting is beautiful, by the way. She's a graphic artist by training and has taken calligraphy classes. It looks just like the handwritings you'd see in a Janue Austen movie - fluid, curvey, and classic - truly a lost art in today's world.

I'd forgotten about the whole thing until this morning, when my Daily Candy email promoted a local calligraphy class next month. Write on! How very....old school! I'm in. :)