P – A Pen in the Hand

P –  A Pen in the Hand

It used to be that when you needed to remember something, all you had to do was get a pen, grab a piece of scrap paper, and write. That was usually a simple task. Pens and paper were always easy to find. 

As a writer, I would carry around a notebook with me and when an idea came into my mind, I would just take the pen that I carried in my pocket and write it down. My writer’s notebooks are filled with ideas and stories that I have created over the years. 

There were even times if I was in the right place, at the right time, and I had access to a typewriter, that I could type out my thoughts and stories. Some of you remember the manual typewriter, don’t you? It was the one where the period and comma keys would type a period or comma whether or not you held down the shift key at the same time, instead of getting a greater than or less than symbol when you hold down the shift key as all keyboards do today. 

As time went on we moved on to electronic and technological gear. Certainly not simple tools, though when you got the hang of them they allowed you to do much more than just write down things. 

My first piece of technological wonder was PDA, a Palm Pilot. I could write in Graffiti which was a Palm script using a little stylus on a screen and it created the words I wanted to put in the note. It also allowed me to keep a calendar, reminders, records, and writings all in the palm of my hand (pun intended). Of course, I had to keep the PDA with me all of the time and it had a very small screen. 

Then came the computers. Keyboarding was a new thing to learn especially with commas and periods and also remembering not to hold down a key too long as it would type an endless string of repeated letters. Computers allowed me much more flexibility in how I could write. I could make my writing look pretty now. I could use different languages, more symbols, fonts, colors, and computers had a big screen. Unfortunately, you can’t carry a computer with you all of the time. 

As technology improved and time moved on, the portability of those devices increased. With iPads and Smartphones now I could have a device for recording, not only writing but audio and video also, with me pretty much all of the time. And all my technology devices talked to each other and sharing with each other everything I did. Having a backup is a very useful thing to have.

Of course, the downside with technology now is that all your equipment needs to be kept charged. And if you are not in a wifi hotspot, you might have difficulty using that device to write/record those notes or ideas down when they come to you. There are times you miss things because you forget what you were going to record. 

The more things improve, the better and more effective they become, but the more problems and difficulties that arise also. And there is always a new learning curve to conquer before it becomes useful.  

What I wish for is a simple tool that you can pick up anytime and anywhere you are; something plain that you can compose on that will record those ideas. Possibly someone could invent it. If it were me, I’d call it a pen and paper.