Throwing Away Our Treasures.

As all of those who have come before me, I grow older and I reflect on my life and the times that I have experienced.  It is a very natural and proper thing for our society and culture to experience change; to evolve and reflect the myriad attitudes and ideals of those that comprise our nation.  I suppose, therefore, it is inevitable that as we go through the cultural process of deciding what to throw out and what to keep, there will be many disagreements about where true and lasting value lies.  Some things that we as a society dispose of will lie dormant for a while and then reappear at a later date; the wheel being reinvented to the joy and amazement of many and the chagrin of others.  Every time this happens, especially in the area of fashion, I am amazed at how this Lazarus effect bestows upon the modern day participants the notion that they are the true discoverers and inventors of the phenomenon.  They somehow revel in the notion that even though this experience has been around the block a time or two, it is so uniquely new and different this time around that no one could possibly have ever done it quite as well before them. 

While this attitude demonstrates a careless ignorance of history, a possible disregard for tradition, and the arrogance of self importance; it also reflects the basic fact that every time an old idea is resurrected, it is typically done so with a new and personal twist that can arguably make it a new idea.  Perhaps the arrogance lies with the originators of the concept; us old school practitioners who resent our old habits being reworked and redesigned.  We live with the thought that it was just fine the first time around and there is always that old adage…if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  We are, of course, wrong.  There is no law that prevents an old idea or concept from being reintroduced in a new, improved fashion.  However, it is also very true that the simple reintroduction itself does not always represent any improvement whatsoever.  Sometimes, the old ideas are basically trashed in their newer versions. 

Whichever the case may be, this recycling has been going on since the beginning of time and will continue into future generations; such is life.  My subject today is not the ideas that are brought back around to us from time to time; but rather those rare and unique items that we tend to casually discard and are then lost forever.  We seem to think that bringing stuff back around at a later date is an eternal option; but it is not.  Some things, when once discarded, are forever gone.  And most of the time, we do not realize this hard truth until that later date arrives when we would like to reclaim that old thing and suddenly discover that it is beyond our reach.  Things of this nature may be that relationship decision we made at one time in our past and the pages of life have turned well past it now, rendering the once in a lifetime choice nothing more than an ephemeral what if conundrum.  It might be the date we passed over in school, the job offer we turned down in our early life, or something as elementary as taking the day off to go fishing with a child or friend, rather than going in to work.  Our lives are all intertwined in this complex world that we inhabit and the six degrees of separation that connects us all can result in some pretty unpredictable situations.

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In my part of the country, I see this loss in the passing of huge, old barns that once graced the landscapes of my state.  As recently as thirty years ago, there were no fewer than a dozen grand old barns scattered throughout my home county of 500 square miles.  Going back to that time thirty years ago, some modest investments of time and labor could have preserved these treasures for future generations to view, utilize, and marvel upon.  But once that renovation window of opportunity passed, once the cornerstones settled and the beams rotted, the revitalization of the structure became a pipe dream.  These icons of a time past were then condemned to either the match or the bulldozer; either one an unworthy fate for such a marvelous achievement.  This same storyline plays out with lots of other articles of history and practices; some being preserved and perpetuated by concerned individuals and organizations that demonstrate appropriate respect for the dignity and importance of these treasures.  But the fact is that the old barns are mostly gone; very few people know the practice of crushing the cane and boiling up a mess of sorghum molasses; the beautiful, hand stitched quilts of the olden days are very rare and few seamstresses now possess that precious art.  We are a lesser people because we have lost many of these things.  The loss is not a criminal offense of which we should be prosecuted.  Rather, it is a tragic loss in judgment that we will all someday regret.   Just as we have failed miserably at the task of honoring and respecting our elders; we are equally failing to preserve many of the unique treasures of articles and practices bestowed upon us by our predecessors.

To my point…one of those things is cursive writing.   I do not know national statistics about this subject; but I do know that in my county, a decision has been made by school administrators to cease the teaching of cursive writing.  Now there are two areas that, due to my substantial lack of experience or expertise and the tremendously challenging aspects of the subjects, I strive (not always successfully) to avoid.   One of these is national foreign policy and the other is education.  Clearly, there are many more that I should consider taking a similar approach to, but that is fodder for another discussion.  The art of cursive (and it is, at its finest, an art) has been a staple of our nation since its inception.   Is the fact that the signing of a check will soon be obsolete or the fact that we now communicate through technology sufficient reason to issue a death sentence to the art of writing?  Do we fully realize that if our youth are not schooled in the practice of cursive, they will be unable to read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the very Constitution of this nation?  And what happens when on those rare and unpredictable occasions, technology becomes unavailable to us?  Are we willing to simply accept that communicating in hard copy fashion is not an option when the system goes down?  Are we willing to embrace the idea that all our adult population will someday in the future be constrained to the practice of awkwardly printing individual letters when authoring a piece of correspondence?  Is it not somehow perversely devolving to set our scripting standards to crude print when it was once a pride of accomplishment to possess beautiful penmanship?  There is an undeniable elegance to fine cursive writing that print, no matter the theme of the font, will never approach. 

Please understand me…I readily acknowledge and am sympathetic to the time constraints placed upon our education administrators in today’s schools.  I realize that every single minute of every single school day is a precious commodity and must be utilized to the fullest extent possible in the preparation of our youth for their futures as productive citizens.  But I also am intimately aware of the many school activities that take up much of that precious time resource; such as band, athletics, many types of clubs, and other various non-curricular subjects.  Each of these endeavors has some merit on their own and can certainly contribute in some fashion to the healthy educational development of the kids.  But having acknowledged that, I also submit that a few minutes of each day, perhaps not even every day and perhaps for just one quarter or semester of each school year, could be found to teach our children how to read and write properly. Whether or not they choose to use it in their adult lives, the possession of cursive writing and reading skill is a tool that every child should have in their toolbox when they enter into the journeys of post-education.  It is arguably an integral part of this nation’s, this society’s, and this culture’s fabric and the wholesale loss of it would be a decision that we will ultimately regret. 

It is critically important…essential…that we focus on where we are going in this world; but we should never lose sight of where we have been.  I fervently hope that the mistakes and misdeeds or our past make us wiser and more responsible as a people in our futures.  I would also hope that we can somehow stop and give careful reflection on the wisdom of casually discarding many of the skills, practices, and items of our history that have made us who we are.  At the very least, there must be a few amongst us that carry the sparks of historical embers just in case a future generation wants to rekindle those flames.  That is an option that we must strive to make available to our children and their children.