We Have Come So Far and Just Too Damn Fast

Disclaimer: this isn't poetry or a story.

There was a time, going as far back in history you choose to go, when humanity would actually write (or print words) on papayrus, wood, silk, linen, and a thing called paper.

These items would either be hand-delivered to where you either lived or worked, either by horse or coach. In the beginning the cost was free, until some idiot decided the best thing to do was charge to have it delivered, it would help pay the King or Tyrant, to keep his clothes nice and clean (okay that was severe sarcasm).

Now to fast forward, in the Americas, the cost to mail a letter started at one penny, and would be hand-carried to a residence once the city received mail from other cities usually by wagon, coach and even boat before the railroad was built. This, like what I mentioned before, generally took days and sometimes weeks to deliver.

Moving forward more, while the railroad was being built from east to west and west to east, an orgainization was put together called The Pony Express. Die-hard young men and women who would race across the plains at breakneck speed (at 50 miles per rider), stop at a weigh station and hand the mail off to another rider waiting, who in turn would race against time to get the mail to its final destination.

During this time or right around that time, the telegraph had been built which created the first wire-to-wire communication (you could almost say the great-grandfather of the computer), which eventually, because of them and the railroad, ended The Pony Express, but the process; the speed of delivery increased. And except for the telegraph, the interesting thing is that the letters delivered were handwritten.

The art of handwriting was then, and now, a taught form of cursive writing that helped people just not to write, but read as well.

Now I have never been one to bitch, moan and groan (a lot, but I do a little), but fast-forwarding to the last thirty-some years; the U.S. Mail Carriers are slower than ever, the mail never gets to you on time or dropped off at the wrong address, and the price of stamps seems to increase every year; or am I the only one this happens to?

When I was in grade school, we use to have stationary with almost one inch ruled-line paper and a number 12 pencil where we learned to print the alphabet in caps and small letters, and eventually learn how to make handwritten words. Anyone remember the size of their grade school stationary?

But getting back to that last thirty years, a new invention became available to the general public; a thing called a computer. It did everything you could ever want except vaccum the house, do the dishes and have babies.

The birth of the computer was the birth of the Super Computer Information Highway, giving everyone an opportunity to find anything and everything they needed or wanted.

Before the computer, there was movies and television to entertain people at home. That isn't the case any longer. With the advent of the compouter to laptop, smart-phones, and I'm sure you can think of a dozen other high-tech gadgets that we never had a name for in the 60s and 70s, that today are household words.

Yep. Be on a train, a plane or even a Greyhound (maybe), break out your Smart-Phone and you can watch a movie, or plug in your ear buds, kick back and listen to music, or use a couple fingers to "text" a friend, or wife or whoever, and bingo, you're happy, your satisfied.

Hell, you don't have to go to the bank to deposit your check or pay a bill any longer. Just take a picture and hit send and it goes where you designate. Personally, I call that being lazy.

Technology. We live it every second of every day. Without it, we would be lost. Anyone remember the kitchen telephone with the 20 foot stretch cord? Ask that question to a teenager today and they have no clue. Do they even know what a phone booth was for? Would they believe you if you said back when you were young, minimum wage was $3.50 an hour, and you thought then you were making damn good money? Just a few examples.

In today's studies, practically 75% of homework is done on the computer. Again, without it, what would kids do today?

Where is this going you may be asking? Simple. This generation of students just starting school, to the next two after them will begin to lose the ability of cursive writing. Writing is an art form, a necessity of life.

Writing is as old as the planet. But writing is a dying art. And somehow, I tie the death of this planet to the death of writing.

Let's face it, a text message goes to where you want in 5.4 seconds. An email on your laptop or computer, 7.4 seconds. Who wants to put a 53 cent stamp on an envelope knowing it will take three days before it gets to where it needs to be?

And today, a large majority of kids practically live on social media sites or gaming sites for that "insta-chat" and when you tie that into a cam, you have live conversation and don't even need to write a thing.

Kids need to get back to cursive writing. I am 70 years old and still hand write everything I do before I type it out to send to whoever; generally publishers. I still hand write letters and mail them to a few close friends or family.

Writing is not a gift, it is a taught art so we can become smarter, wiser, and yes, daring in our exploits of life. Writing is expression when all else fails.

What brought all this about was a cartoon caption I saw earlier today. A teenager was at his computer and a friend was standing over his shoulder and he said, "I'm supposed to write an essay on what is meant by 'The pen is mightier than the sword'. First, I need to use Google and find out what a pen is."

I know what you may be thinking; he wrote all this just to get to here?

Sometimes I rant like I said earlier, and it takes me time to arrive at the destination of my choosing. But want to know something else? Somewhere in all this, you might be thinking about things that disturb you as well that needs a good rant.

This one is mine.