You will need to click on this and then click again, if necessary, to enlarge it for reading. After seeing this, I spent a minute or two cursing cursive, or what passes for it in my world.
Image: Cindy Sherman's photograph, Untitled #96, which recently sold at auction for $3.89 million. Yes, that's right, 3.89 million dollars, the most expensive photograph to date. Don't get me started....
Hello Teresa:
ReplyDeleteIt is, indeed, one of the great sadnesses of our times that, increasingly, fewer and fewer people appear to write personal letters, relying instead on email or the telephone. Over the years we have always kept letters from particular friends or those to which we have attached some importance, for whatever reason, and now we are so glad that we have. Oh, the times they are a'changing!
Cindy Sherman is a trip, but I had no idea her photography could command that sort of money. I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI print all when writing, even my notes in college. I am a lefty and used to get slapped on the hand for smearing.I can't remember writing very much in cursive lately, I need to concentrate when I even sign my signature.That even has became a slur of letters unless it is something legal.Now I know you a bit better, you have a rather artsy stle in your penmanship.I never typed until we had these great machines to use. I would have had to give up my library time to do it in junior high when it was offered so never learned.
ReplyDeleteJane and Lance, Yes, I have also kept letters from friends and family. It's so nice to see their handwriting, even years later, it calls up memories and evokes emotions.
ReplyDeleteLinda, The art world has run amok with their penchant for overestimating the value of art work. I have nothing against Ms. Sherman, I don't know her, but that bidding at auction is usually just a matter of wanting to win, thus feeding the ego of the buyer. IMO
ReplyDeleteSteve, My own hadnwriting has devolved into a mixture of print and cursive and almost illegible. I don't get much practice anymore. I do love computers and have always been a fair typist, but I also was a letter writer and I miss that.
ReplyDeleteI still do much of my writing in longhand first, then type it and edit it. Cursive has a flow to it that seems to facilitate creativity.
ReplyDeleteI also write maybe 2-4 personal letters a year; only one older gentleman in England ever responds in kind. It's a shame - it seems as though no one is willing to put in the time and effort any more. And with schools cutting back and scrambling to cut corners where possible, many have given up teaching cursive writing altogether. Sad.
I had to write a note to someone a while ago (a few months), and I realized it was the first time in a long while that I had written rather than typed anything. It felt strange and cramped, at first, and then I began to remember. Your handwriting looks to belong to a very imaginative person, with all those loops and whirls. Mine is very different, maybe I'll put a page up from my journals one of these days. Thanks for the look inside...
ReplyDeleteHandwriting tells so much about a person. It is a shame that we don't get that glimpse of the writer anymore.
ReplyDeleteLi, It is a shame that people don't take the time to write letters. Every close friendship deserves at least one. Letting it go in schools is more of this depersonalizing our lives, removing the little things that mark a persons life. Yes, I agree. It is sad.
ReplyDeleteDJan, I do hope you'll post that page. I like seeing the handwriting of friends and it does provide a hint at who they might be, a sense of personality. What we write about in our posts does this, too, but it's like a personal stamp more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteLady Cat, Being able to see a writers hand in a rough draft or manuscript of some type has always been intriguing to me. Another way of getting to know them better.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post. I agree that handwriting is so personal, as you say, it tells so much about a person. I love old family letters that I have kept over the years and just to see the handwriting brings the family members back to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog, at this stage I am unsure where I am going with it, what I am doing.
Whenever I have to write now, my hand cramps up as the muscles are no longer used to that way of holding my hand. I think sending or getting a card in the mail is rare these day and when I do get one I treasure it. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all the computers and cell phones, even phones broke, what would people do, would there be a panic, I suspect so. We'd need carrier pigeons and ham radio operators by the dozens.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting subject... handwriting. Can I take your idea over to my blog and do something with it. I'm inspired to write something in my own handwriting. What a cool idea.
ReplyDeleteAs for the photo. The value of anything is so arbitrary in this world... and when people compete to win, as in an auction, this kind of bidding happens. It's crazy but it's all about the really wealthy being able to say that they own something,,, like owning a Degas or a Picasso. They laughed at Warhol's paintings of Coke and Elvis... and Warhol laughed all the way to the bank.
Worhol's Eight Elvis's brought 100 million a few years back. Go figure.
You are perfectly right about handwriting, it does seem to say so much about a person that e-mails and texts do not. I can't help wondering whether they newer forms of creating documents on iPads and other tablet computers - where "pens" can be used, will provide at least a partial insight : I must try an experiment.
ReplyDeleteMARILYN, It's nice to see you again no matter how long. I have letters from my mother and others and it does bring them closer.
ReplyDeleteLINDA, I suspect we would always find a way to communicate. Smoke signals, anyone?
FARMLADY, I do hope you will take this idea to your blog. I think it offers that glimpse I mentioned that just brings another dimension to our little world of communicating here. I agree regarding the photograph and all art auctions, it's about winning, feeding the ego. So many ways that money could be used to help others....
ALAN, I hope you will share with us the results of your experiment. Perhaps my computer would do something similar, but I'm techno-challenged. Mmmm, now you have me wanting to check that out. Thank you.
The hand writing analyst said my script was indicative of an unwanted child. Perhaps this is why I am now wanted in six states and Mexico.
ReplyDeleteOnly six?
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever and wonderful way to make your point! I have two handwriting styles, depending on how much my arthritis is acting up. But journal writers have said writing by hand brings out our thoughts... writing by left hand even moreso. Must play with these ideas some day.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nancy! I've never done much left-hand writing. Perhaps I should give it a try.
ReplyDeleteSecond grade for me too. This is a great idea and may I steal this as well. I hardly write much and I know I can write faster than type. I enjoy printing more I think.
ReplyDeleteI am writing a post about handwriting...freaky....
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing your handwriting. If you saw mine you might think I was actually a five year-old.
ONE FLY, Please do! I'd love for it to be passed around. My handwriting is sort of a combo.
ReplyDeleteBOSSY BETTY, Great minds? :)
I still receive handwritten lettters from particular friends, although I type mine. I tend to write very long letters and my wrist gets stiff.
ReplyDeleteHandwriting is a very personal thing, I agree with you, but it can be hard to decipher. At least we still know how to write, do kids still learn their alphabet that way?
My handwriting has always been a liability, so I respectfully disagree. Email is a gift of legibility I extend to my correspondents. To write them with pen and paper would be like ripping a hearing aid out of a companion's ears just before I spoke to them.
ReplyDeleteFRIKO, Legible or illegible it's still Your handwriting and I like seeing a friends handwriting at least once. How lucky you are to still get handwritten letters.
ReplyDeleteRW, Perhaps you've found this to be the case, but I bet at least some of your friends might still like to see it, legible or not.
For the record: I'm very much opposed to ripping hearing aids out of friends ears. :)
I actually came across this website that will send your email hand written as a snail mail to anyone you'd like. This just seems wrong to me...since it isn't in the person sending the letters writing. But maybe it will encourage the idea of handwriting as a popular trend, and the thing to do. I love the idea of handwriting...it's so much more personal. If I were to put up a copy of my writing it would say that I try too hard. Sometimes when I write my hand gets so sore trying to make each letter just so. Left over issues from my penmanship classes in school. My aunt used to be able to write backwards with her left hand whatever she was writing in her right hand at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYou have lovely handwriting. And don't even get me started on that photo....
It is obvious that handwriting is something people long for. Wouldn't it be fun if we could use our hand-writing here in the comments? It might take a longer time to read, but it would be fun to see our various personalities! ´)
ReplyDeleteHave a happy week-end, I'm starting mine now. The rain is pouring down!!
Grethe
KARENA, I think it would be nice if it was encouraged again, but even thank yous aren't always sent via the mail anymore and that seems even more removed from anything defining etiquette. Your aunt had some kind of ability there. Amazing. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGRETHE, That is a great idea, the option of handwritten comments. I almost put the text of my "letter" in the body of this post, but then decided part of the experience is deciphering the friends writing. People seem to be in such a hurry, they don't want to take the time. Everyone could use some slowing down and allowing for these things. Have a great weekend. We sure could use that rain! Enjoy!
Wow! One of my new favorite posts of yours. You are so right...I miss the handwritten word, too. You have beautiful penmanship...I see lots of creativity.
ReplyDeleteI have a collection of letters that my mother saved for years written between my mother's family in Belfast, Northern Ireland and my mother who married a "Yank" and moved to North Dakota, of all places. It's like reading a book.
And I have an aunt in Texas who is turning 94 and I owe her a letter. By golly, I'm going to sit right down and write to her, today!
CherylK, Thank you so much. I, too, have a collection of letters from my mom, written to me over the course of many years. I love having them, but yours does sound like a book. What a treasure to have.
ReplyDeletei wandered over here from alan's post today where he got his inspiration from this post of yours.
ReplyDeletei am fascinated by handwriting....yours is so remarkably like my sister in law's it is quite odd! love it!!
did you perchance catch the diane rehm program the other day where they were discussing handwriting in the digital age? if not the link to the show is:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-28/handwriting-digital-age
thought it was interesting and maybe you will find it so too.
Mouse, Thanks so much for coming over. I wasn't aware of the rehm program, so thank you for the link. I would not want handwriting to get lost in this digital age. I think it's of great value on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteStunned by the price of the photo! Love this post. Handwriting is so wonderfully individual. The more stiff my fingers become, the more challenging to write, but I can't imagine not giving it a go regularly. Readable? Feedback indicates about 50/50 but whose keeping score. It is what it is, evolving right along with me.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting your written piece. I love seeing folks are carrying it forward. Not sure I'm ready to believe we will someday reach the same point with writing that we are with making change. When the power goes out and the cash registers quit, the look of panic in the eyes of those behind the registers is a bit "deer in the headlights" like. Scary stuff, these vanishing bits and pieces.
Most younger people haven't a clue how to make change. Or do anything without a calculator. We have our machines to do our thinking for us.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun post for me to do.