The Pen

Tonite is another nite where I want
---to write just to see my handwriting
---on paper.

Sometimes I write for purpose; sometimes
---I write for the benefit of others;
---sometimes I write for my own
---pleasure.

The paper holds the ink wherever my pen
---goes, never more to be one without
---the other.

Under my control, the piece of paper
---becomes a mighty discourse or just
---a simple letter.

When I'm happy with my thoughts, they
---remain visible to the world.

When I can't express myself, the paper
---is a silent confidant who, once crumpled
---or burned, can never betray me.

But now I use a keyboard.
I can't smell the ink.
Nothing is permanent.

Originality and personality step aside
---and allow room for convenience
---and speed.

Looking back at my notebook
---with some remorse, I print a more
---perfect paper from the enemy.

***

That's coming to you from the vault. I wrote that back when computers were at the verge of taking over my life.

Strange to think that I once thought I had no use for email.

Strange that I resented my parents for making me take Keyboarding A and B my Freshman year of high school on the argument that "What does anybody use keyboards for anymore?"

Strange that when I got to college, I didn't understand how we were able to be "online" without using the phone line. And I really wasn't sure what to use the "Internet" for.

Stranger then, to think that if I hadn't had email when I was a missionary, and if I hadn't learned to type well, my letters home would have been pathetically few and short.

And stranger still to think that the technologies I rebelled against using for so long--email, Instant Messaging, Web Logs, Facebook--are the very same tools I now use on a regular basis to complete tasks I've always loved. Only now they're easy and less cumbersome.

Strangest yet to realise that there are things today I can't even conceive of how to do without the Internet. Like job hunting!

When will I learn to embrace technology and progress? Even so, I still wonder, when will it go too far?