Once again it has been quite some time since I decided that I would start posting to this blog and have still come up with new and unique ways to procrastinate.
One of the Sunday evening rituals in our family as I was growing up was that while my brothers, sisters, and Iwere watching the “Wonderful World of Disney”, Dad would go to his den and write a letter to his mother on his IBM selectric typewriter. After he wrote the letter, he would read it to my mom, seal it in an envelope and drive to the main post office so that he could get the letter into a bin that would be emptied at 10 pm that night (on some nights he would take me with him, “for the drive” and we would stop at the Novia Cafe for a piece of coconut cream pie). In return Dad would get a letter from his mom (my grandmother), probably the same day that his letter arrived at his mom’s. I assume that Sunday night was her night too and it was pretty neat thinking of both of them devoting an hour or so on their typewriters at the same time. I’m sure the connection was palpable for my Dad… to know that she was spending time with him as he was spending time with her even though they were separated by 800 kms.
When I got my first Macintosh computer in 1988 I encouraged Dad to sit down and try it out. Dad certainly wasn’t afraid of technology, but he had to be sure that it would be beneficial to him before he would use it. My Mac SE came with a floppy disc that was entitled, “Tour Disc”. It was a clever little bootable 800 K disc that had an interactive animation that gave you the basics of using a mouse (i.e. pointing, clicking, dragging). The only problem with it was that it would take you 4 or 5 hours to complete the “tour” from start to finish. I think this was the biggest obstacle for my father, who couldn’t sit still for any amount of time. One day though, when I got home from classes, Dad was sitting at the little Mac and going through the tour disc. That was the start. You might say I created a monster. He started doing his bulletins for worship services on my computer, and squirrelling away a whole bunch of MS Works files covering everything under the sun from insurance documents, household inventories, to his own funeral service outline. I actually had to start booking time on my own computer to get my papers and things done… not to mention the games that I wanted play on the silly thing.
One of the major changes in his routines was that he started writing his letters to his mom on the computer. I have heard the traditionalists bemoan the fact that a letter generated on a computer is so much more impersonal than a handwritten note. I would agree to a point. I have to say that getting a handwritten note is amazing and perks me up like very little else can. Handwritten notes are so rare these days. I think though that when someone sits at a writing desk, or an IBM selectric typewriter, or a computer and thinks about you as they write the letter, that is what is special. When it comes to some of my friends, I would prefer to get a computer generated letter because their handwriting is so unintelligible (but that is a topic for another post).
I have digressed a little bit though. I have been thinking about Dad’s ritual and have always admired: his devotion to his mother; and his self discipline to actually carry out this practice. My mother seldom wrote letters to her folks. When she did, they were enormous tomes, handwritten with beautiful penmanship, but these were certainly not on any schedule. I used to say that I got my letter writing skills from my mom, because I too, while I am capable of writing, always considered it a bit of a chore. I always enjoy having written and mailed a letter, but the act of writing it has always been difficult for me. When I first joined the “on-line” world and started sending e-mails, I wrongly assumed that I would start writing more to my friends and family (at least those that had on-line capability), ”just because it’s so easy”. I still don’t do a great job of keeping in touch with the people that I love. I hope they know that it is not because I don’t think of them or care about them, but because I lack the self discipline required to stay in touch.
At any rate, I think now that the time has come for me to establish a new routine. Let’s see how long it will last. I will sit down every Sunday evening and write something for this blog. I hope that I will have something to say that people will want to read, but I imagine that most will be twaddle. In the end it probably won’t be read much anyway. If you do read my posts, please feel free to weigh in on any discussion points that I might raise.
Peace.
