The Book of Me (15)

Lately it's becoming a struggle to answer the prompts. That may be part of a general genealogy research-and-writing block, including but not limited to a lack of (what I consider necessary) lightness for the me business.

I began this:

Handwriting (Prompt 42)

Paraphrasing: Add to your Book of Me an example of your handwriting. Share some examples from your family and/or ancestors. Has your handwriting changed over time? Perhaps include some samples of younger generations?

Remember airmail letters?

Hmmmmm. To extend Julie's thoughts, our born-in-the-1900s generations take/took it for granted that we can write manually ― because we now have universal education, at least in the basics of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. Pupils were encouraged to emulate the perfect, precise script of the alphabet that the teacher prominently displayed on the blackboard (do they still have blackboards?).

The learning of handwriting was not particularly a priority for our more distant ancestors. Nor may it be in the future for our new "digital age" generations. There's a distinct whine going on now that, come the fast-approaching future, allegedly-educated human beings will have lost the skill (and the will) to write by hand. Our babes of the hand-held devices and glowing screens communicate socially almost at the speed of light and tiny keyboards have perforce created their own short-form language. What that means for their future employment and career activities, I have no idea. I think I will step around that kettle of fish while the stepping is still fairly navigable. Serious thought finished.

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Then I rifled through old files for what seemed like hours to find some handwriting samples, thinking of foreign-born ancestors schooled in a different writing style, or some of my correspondents with elegant script. You know what happened! I got distracted into sorting out things that needed sorting; I got sidetracked down memory lane. Scraps of paper from children learning to write; Grandpa's thoughts in a shaky hand that deteriorated so much with age; the beautifully rounded writing of a cousin, the one who took her own life at the age of thirty-six.

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Meanwhile. Genealogy blogging languishes with half-finished posts and half-baked ideas. Does this happen every summer? Maybe I'm not alone. To be honest, I spend more time on my other blog: CamelDabble TravelBabble. The camels are not shy about demanding equal time. Along with other travel tales.

The Book of Me ― Prompts 43 + ― is in suspension for the time being. Bits and pieces to appear here until I get my mojo back.

© 2014 Brenda Dougall Merriman. All rights reserved.