Nostalgia

There's been a phone book on our porch for the last week.  I remember seeing it the day it was dropped off.  Having made no effort to bring it into the house, cringing at the thought of yet another object to clutter our cabinets, it remains there to be rained on.  There are already two phone books underneath our kitchen counter from the previous home owners.  When was the last time anyone got out a phone book?  What's the point of remembering the alphabet or picking up something heavier than your smartphone when there's a digital phone book at your fingertips?

Sometimes I wish we still had to use things like phone books or encyclopedias.  Today, everyone's an expert.  Nothing goes unknown in a group of friends concealing cell phones, anymore.  Sometimes I find it quite disheartening that my knowledge will ultimately be out-trumped by anyone with an Internet connection.

I want to use car keys, not buttons.  I like books made with paper so I have a visual of how far I've read.  I want an actual bookmark; not a page flagged on a Kindle.  I want to finger paint.  With real paint.

Mostly, I want a pen and paper.  My handwriting has become somewhat part of my identity.  I cherish it, for fear that the act of writing will be altogether lost from education in the future.  I can't find a font that expresses what my own creation of letters means to me, either...