The Human Touch

Right on time, perhaps even a day early this year, I received my annual birthday card from my dear friend Elizabeth. Not only is Elizabeth old school in that she is one of the last people to send birthday cards, she includes a note that is beautifully handwritten in legible cursive.

That is quite the opposite of me. If it wasn’t for Facebook reminding me of birthdays and auto-completing most of the letters of “Happy Birthday”, I doubt anyone would receive a birthday note from me, much less a hand-written one.

Early on, my handwriting skills showed that I’d be perfect as a doctor, where an illegible scribbled line serves as a signature on a prescription.  Alas, 10th grade honors biology proved that bad handwriting was the only qualification I had for the path to medicine.

There are several reasons I am a writer, the primary one being I have words and phrases in my head that need to escape. However, had the computer and word processor software never been invented, my head would have exploded long ago from the build-up of content needing to be released.

Sure, there was the typewriter option for writing. In my middle school typing class, though, the only talent I showed for typing was when we created word art pictures like this:

 

Now, though, inspired by Elizabeth and that great ’80’s prophet Rick Springfield, who way back in 1983 sang about talking with computers and needing a human touch, I’ve started practicing my handwriting again. I do this mostly in meetings at work while taking notes, my feeble attempt at paying attention.

I have discovered if I slow way down, forcing my mind to wait on my hand, I do OK. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, I end up behind on the note-taking, losing my rhythm and legibility as I speed up. Turns out, handwriting is a lot like running – it takes a while to build up speed and stamina. I have a long way to go.

To have some more practice at handwriting and adding a human touch to the blog, I’ve crafted a note to you, my blog readers. Click here or on the image below to read it.

Hope you will take the time this week to add a human touch in some way. Put the phones away during meals or pen your own note to an old friend.

Can you think of any other ways to add a human touch?

Thanks for reading,

 

 

 

PS. Since this is a post about handwriting in and adding a human touch, I’m adding back my initials signature for my closing signoff. I developed this as a kid and refined it over the years. It’s a G and F combined, in case that wasn’t obvious.