Writing is often mentioned as a key to being civilized and intelligent. It is given credit for enabling us to read what people thought 2000 years ago. Ok, to be more accurate, to read what people chose to write down 2000 years ago. Of course there is a difference between what I think and what I write. More technically, what I think and what I type. Well, I am not typing so much as keyboarding.
Writing leaves clues. Why would she have typed "I love you" if she weren't feeling pretty positive about me? I bet she really did feel love for me when she wrote that and I bet she still does. I will just collapse all that into a note to my memory to keep in mind that she loves me.
Some of the problems of communicating by spoken word also cling to writing. Whether she typed or said,"I love you", was she talking to me? Did she mean the note to get to me? Writing has that well-known characteristic of hanging around on whatever material was written on. Stone tablet, clay tablet, note paper or a digital file, the written "I love you" can get to an unintended recipient. The writing can fall into completely unintended hands, such as her husband's or my daughter's. Cardinal Richelieu said," If a man will write but three lines on paper, I will have him hanged as a traitor." In other words, give me and my lawyers a scrap of writing and we will find an interpretation persuading the government that your writing reveals you as a danger who must be executed.
Writing's bridge over time can serve in other ways. We not only have writing from 100 or 1000 years ago, we can have it from yesterday and from last week. Some things, like body weight or mood or blood sugar are best observed over time. A written record of every day for a month is much more informative than a single measurement taken just now.
Martin Seligman, a psychologist, reports that his students really took to the practice of writing down three things that happened during the day that were good or fun or otherwise positive. Deciding what to write about and deciding what exactly to write down created a moment of examination that showed the better parts of each day. We have modified the practice into writing down comments in the morning about what happened the previous day. Doing that seems to make the previous day clearer in our minds.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
