Keyboards are fake.

One of the best teachers I’ve ever had was my primary school superintendent. Her name was Maj-Britt and she was old-school. We were her last class before retirement, so she decided to really outdo herself with us. She organized everything from festivals and theater performances to tours and trips. It seemed so obvious that we were her last chance to prove to herself why she had become a teacher. And she really succeeded. And then some!

Unlike other teachers I had, Maj-Britt was of an an old-fashioned vein. It was like getting a glimpse into a strange world. We had these ancient school books, we learned chants to remember and had to learn everything from Lennart Hellsing to the Old Testament. That for which I am most grateful to Maj-Britt is that she taught me my cursive writing. We must have been the last of the cursive Mohicans. Not only did people write by hand back then, we also had to learn to write old-style cursive. For everyone of the iPod generation, I’ll explain that "writing" means taking a so-called pen and putting it against a piece of paper and making small hand movements in order to form letters. In the long run this will turn into words and sentences, entire novels were once written this way.

Present. I am one of the quickest typists in Västra Götaland. Not quite true perhaps, but I wrote that last sentence pretty fast. I did it to prove a point: I’m a pretty fast typist. So what are the arguments for going back to pen and paper?

For me it is about exclusivity. If today I wanted a person near me to feel appreciated, to know that I've spent time and energy to get that person to feel a little more appreciated, I’d write a letter by hand. Or a postcard. Actually, I could write on any kind of paper at any time. But I would write it by hand. This is because everything else I write I write on a computer and writing something by hand would signal that: Hey, you. I like you! I like you so much that I’m doing this 1994-style with pencil and paper!

The problem is that it’ll be ugly. I like many others haven’t maintained my handwriting. I use my computer every day for writing. My pen however doesn’t know that I love it, mainly because I use it once a month. It’s time to give our pens a little more love. To sink your teeth into this you can get the book, Love Your Handwriting by Heidi Swapps. It’s not only a book that encourages you to practice your cursive, you also get a couple of pens, a ruler, an eraser and an exercise book. It's about giving the pen a little more love, and automatically you will get back at least as much love from the pen.