-Isms: View on life in rural America

It’s been said that each fingerprint is unique.

I contend a person’s handwriting tells a similar story.

Dad’s handwriting - beginning to appear a bit shaky - is the quintessential teacher script: perfectly formed letters looped together in an orderly vertical cadence.

Mom’s handwriting featured precise strokes, making it easy to read. Each capital letter, a flourish of serif elements and wide spacing.

Even my children’s handwriting is distinct. Cassie’s resembles groupings of thinly-formed letters with a script-like twist. Amanda’s writing is a stringing of lower case letters, occasionally joined by an upward stroke.

And Courtney, well, I’m not certain she ever learned to write cursive. Her handwriting looks like a hurried mess of tiny letters. Nothing fancy, just matter-of-fact placement on paper.

It’s not that I memorize everyone’s writing, but I definitely notice penmanship and link it to them, an element of personality, a character trait that tells a story of its own.

After reading “How the ballpoint pen killed cursive” by Josh Giesbrecht, in The Atlantic, a comment made by the author stuck in my mind.

He cites a portion of The Missing Ink, when author Philip Hensher remembers the realization he did not know what his friend’s handwriting looked like. “It never struck me as strange before ... We could have gone on like this forever, hardly noticing that we had no need of handwriting anymore.”

No need of handwriting anymore?

No doubt writing has segued into digital forms. Do students even learn the fluid motion associated with cursive handwriting? No. Most learn how to maneuver around a keyboard, despite research showing writing by hand is better than pecking keys of a computer.

Giesbrecht asserts computers did not kill cursive.

His suspect: the ballpoint pen.

“Fountain pens want to connect letters. Ballpoint pens need to be convinced to write, need to be pushed into the paper rather than merely touch it,” he writes.

I read that sentence and scanned my desk. Seventeen ball point pens rest in a container. A purple fine-point pen sits next to the office phone. A PaperMate gel pen perches near my cell phone. Three Bic Round Stic pens lay at various points, always close at hand in case I need to take notes.

Giesbrecht said holding a ballpoint pen places strain on hand, requires a more pronounced angle that’s uncomfortable.

When I began freelance writing about 25 years ago, each article was written by hand first, then transferred to computer. There’s something about the brain-to-paper flow that doesn’t immediately translate to the computer. I still map out articles, draw strength from my scribblings and questions, before pushing a key on a keyboard.

Handwriting identifies character traits, defines an individual’s story. Mine says: people-oriented; heart-centered, sentimental and impulsive; strong emotions; disciplined; love to travel; intelligent, with high goals and self-esteem.

Picture that, in a flow of script, on a Page, telling a story from my life.