What fortune — It’s Thankful Thursday and National Handwriting Day!
Yes, it’s a thing. Established in 1977 by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association, the occasion may have roots in self-interest but it’s still a day that celebrates my favorite tools: pen and paper.
Early on, my literary life was formed with pen to paper: writing in loose looping curves across pages of my school-girl diary, then writing sloppy and free in college journals, and later as a fevered reporter recording every word in my own scrappy shorthand.
It’s handwriting that has always connected me to mind, body and heart.
Sure, laptops and phone notes are the modern tools. But it’s handwriting that has the power to capture and reveal the self, my self.
Natalie Goldberg says handwriting is crucial to creativity:
“A writing practice is simply picking up a pen — a fast-writing pen, preferably, since the mind is faster than the hand — and doing timed writing exercises. The idea is to keep your hand moving for, say, ten minutes, and don’t cross anything out, because that makes space for your inner editor to come in.”
Handwriting brings my mother back, in a hurried scrawl of a recipe.
Handwriting provides lively tales of my grandmother’s life on a Washington wheat farm nearly 100 years ago.
Handwriting reminds me of my constant shopping list of chicken, cream, and gin.
In meetings, I am the only one taking notes. How do they retain important information, I wonder. That was always my trick; in college my study drill was to write and rewrite key information. Even now, when preparing for poetry reading or public speaking, I write and rewrite every single word.
Every day I write a to-do list and revel in the scratch-off.
Handwriting allows long letters to friends. In the slow-down of penmanship, however sloppy, I ease into the languid pace of contemplation.
Again and again, my refrain: How do I know what I feel until I write it out?
So yes, you bet, I celebrate National Handwriting Day. Today I wrote, by hand and heart, a dozen thank you notes. It was the best thing I did all day.
On this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful for the art and grace of handwriting. Write on!