Paper And Ink.

I love books.  I love the feel and smell of paper and ink.

I'm sure our electronic lives will progress, but I hope not at the cost of paper and ink.

Probably when the time comes soon, I'll have my books available on Kindle as well as print.  All well and good.  But for me, their is something impermanent ephemeral about it.  Yes, eventually paper degrades, but their are types that are age resistant and why not reprint?.  There are plenty of trees, in spite of what green folk say.  Hey, we can even recycle.  -s-

We are so conditioned to the computer world, it's hard to imagine life without them.  Actually, though the years were early, the kids were without them.  My entire childhood never saw them.  Now they have 'baby puters' to condition little ones early.

Yes, I'm writing on one now and posting this on my blog.  It's a good thing (Miri).  What we should ask is what do we do if and when the power goes out?

One summer a while back, we experienced a storm of Biblical proportions.  Floods and power outages happened for at least a day.  Some places have had it worse with no electricity for days even weeks.

The time I recall is minor but telling.

We simply whipped out the candles and read books.  We managed to eat without a working kitchen and we listened to hand crank radio.

A relative of their, a cousin was flummoxed.  Didn't seem to know what to do except languish, seeming to mourn the loss of power.

Tech is fragile if civilization is not.  For even without power, we can make our choices, live our lives.

So treasure paper and ink.  They are a conveyance for weal or woe.  A Bible, a communist manifesto.  A Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights or Mein Kampf.    Such is choice and by which we may know many things.

Paper and ink are outward expression of what is in heart and mind.

And what is written on the heart is forever.