Requiem for the Written Word
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| “I don’t care what they say. I won’t stay, in a world without” ….books |
The world is changing too fast for me. Along with the loved ones I’ve laid to rest, I mourn the exit of a multitude of things my grandchildren will never experience: small grocery stores that allowed you to run in and out in a few minutes, road trips where you saw something besides the highway, birthday parties with homemade cake and pin-the-tail on the donkey, neighborhood games on summer evenings. All are gone—as surely as Grandma, and like Grandma–living only in my memory.
I’m all for the modern technology which has made our lives easier. I like Alexa but could live nicely without her. I do like my Swiffer. I would hate to give up my Ninja Blender. And I surely don’t miss the laborious task of typing footnotes at the end of each page of a paper.
But if I have to give up the printed word, I won’t do it without a fight.
The written word is not dead yet, but, believe me, it is very ill, struggling and gasping for breath as I write. Beloved family members are being called to the bedside to find the last ditch effort that might prevent its demise.
Imagine the world without books, magazines, and newspapers. No morning paper with your coffee, no libraries, no waiting anxiously for the mailman, and no small bookstores with resident tabbies draped over the backs of well-worn reading chairs.
No handwritten letters from a loved one long gone, no diaries to be stumbled upon by surprised grandchildren—who think you were never young, no recipes scribbled on scraps of paper in now-faded, lead pencil by a beloved great-grandmother.
The children of the coming generations won’t find Bibles with underlined passages, postcards from faraway places, letters home from a lonely soldier, notes in the margins of text books, or bundles of love letters bound in blue ribbons in the bottom of a cedar chest.
Instead of sharing a dog-eared book with grandchildren who are still enthralled with its magic ability to take them to a different world, we’ll say “Go get Granny’s Kindle and I’ll read you a story.” Or, "Let’s gather round the computer to read an e-book.”
Book lovers, unite to save the printed word. I'll tell you how in my next post.
I’m all for the modern technology which has made our lives easier. I like Alexa but could live nicely without her. I do like my Swiffer. I would hate to give up my Ninja Blender. And I surely don’t miss the laborious task of typing footnotes at the end of each page of a paper.
But if I have to give up the printed word, I won’t do it without a fight.
The written word is not dead yet, but, believe me, it is very ill, struggling and gasping for breath as I write. Beloved family members are being called to the bedside to find the last ditch effort that might prevent its demise.
Imagine the world without books, magazines, and newspapers. No morning paper with your coffee, no libraries, no waiting anxiously for the mailman, and no small bookstores with resident tabbies draped over the backs of well-worn reading chairs.
No handwritten letters from a loved one long gone, no diaries to be stumbled upon by surprised grandchildren—who think you were never young, no recipes scribbled on scraps of paper in now-faded, lead pencil by a beloved great-grandmother.
The children of the coming generations won’t find Bibles with underlined passages, postcards from faraway places, letters home from a lonely soldier, notes in the margins of text books, or bundles of love letters bound in blue ribbons in the bottom of a cedar chest.
Instead of sharing a dog-eared book with grandchildren who are still enthralled with its magic ability to take them to a different world, we’ll say “Go get Granny’s Kindle and I’ll read you a story.” Or, "Let’s gather round the computer to read an e-book.”
Book lovers, unite to save the printed word. I'll tell you how in my next post.
I am on your team!!!! I love , love, love books....writing nites in the margins and turning down corners of my fsvorite pages...and gettung autographs of my favorite authors onbthe the insude if the book....THE BEST!!!!! THANKS, CYNTHIA....FROM SANDI CHENEY
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