H is for Handwriting

Maybe I have a split personality.

As the world rushes forward, embracing all things digital, I have noticed that what I like to call the art of handwriting is becoming less and less important. It's very rare that you see people doing any writing by hand these days. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not being all middle aged and raging about it, shouting about the fact that kids aren't taught proper handwriting in school. I can type faster than I can write now. If you come out of your first few years in school being able to form all the letters of the alphabet and have a legible hand, you have learned to write and that is all that is necessary to get you through life.

I have blogged about handwriting before. I like to do it as I used to have quite an attractive hand, but as the years have gone on, I have lost it slightly and need to practice a bit to get back to better days. My parents bemoan the lost art of letter writing. Do you remember those dark times before email and the internet when all we had were telephones and the post? One of my aunts used to live in Canada and she would write all the time. Getting her letters in the blue air mail envelopes once or twice a month used to be a very exciting thing. Aunty Sue, lived in Calgary, and her stories of deep snow for months and rodeo's all sounded very far away and different and exciting.  

What I got from it most though was her handwriting. She has a beautiful cursive hand and I used to marvel at the way she formed her letters. In school we were taught italics and if you were very good at that, calligraphy classes were afforded to some. I have kept the italics and a lot less of the calligraphy. 

I was reading an article the other day that suggested that maybe your handwriting style is hereditary, subconscious copying of your parents writing. It also suggested that it has something to do with your bone structure and physical make up too. My handwriting is nothing like my parents. As my father is dyslexic he writes very little and my mothers handwriting while also a very attractive hand, is nothing like mine. 

I'll close with a question to you. do you think that a handwriting style is important, or do you sit on the side of the fence of "if you can read it, it's done it's job?"

Also, Rocco is in bed and I forgot to ask him for a number so I will deputise with number 1400 on the linky list which takes you to Me, You and Zu. There is a post about beer on the front page too, can't be bad can it? 

Rock on, 

W.