Walls, Tweets, and Autograph Books

We all clearly know life has changed dramatically in the last 100 years, but do we really know how profound those changes are to future generations? For some time now I have emailed. I have three blogs. My youngest sons got me started texting by cell. Students I work with challenged me to get on Facebook. Now I have a Facebook Fan page too -- and I tweet on Twitter. Lots of words -- but where do they go? What will their impact be over the space of time -- real time? I watch my twitter account as I update it with so many tweets shifting down the list. Where are mine? Where are yours?

Byrom wrote:

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."

We can still read the works of Byrom. Will anyone read my words here on this blog, let alone over time?  I don't make it to my Facebook page often enough to catch all that has appeared on my wall. Are those words lost? Were they important? Did I miss something profound?

I uncovered a little treasure today among my vintage books and magazines. I had frankly not remembered it being among my collection. It's a very small vintage autograph album once belonging to "Mary" from the class of 1930-31 of Haudley High School in Virginia. All the autographs and little poems and sayings contained within are yesteryear's "wall writing" or simple texts or tweets. But they are still here. I can thumb through the 50 pastel pages and wonder who Clara E. Daugherty was who provided her nickname, "Libby," with the lovely handwriting. Her little poem was simply,

"Remember me in the dark

Remember me in the light

Remember me in the summer time

With a string around my heart."

What kind of fun did Myrtle N. Carlisle of Winchester, VA think of when she penned,

"Remember me long,

Remember me forever,

Remember the fun we have had together."

Even though Mary no longers owns her charming little album (for who knows what reason), did she flip through the pages of this little book and, upon reading that, pause to laugh over shared memories?

What is part of my own life that prompts me to recall friends past or present? Is it on a wall? Is it in a tweet? Is it in an email long lost in the files I never check anymore because of the 100s more that have come in? And, even when I do see words on the page, do they evoke the memories that these did for Mary and the longings of my own heart when I see the hand-written script flowing from age-old fountain pens?

I love it when I receive a hand written note. My sister-in-law does not own a computer, so once a month we get 6 or 7 pages in her flowing script. I am thoroughly intrigued with Joon's FlyingHousewife shop on Etsy where she includes handwritten missives (see her shop in the sidebar). Not many take the time to write longhand any more.

For Christmas this year, I believe I will hand pen letters to each of my children. I will use my best penmanship, and rose-scented sepia-toned ink on parchment paper. I will doodle some fancy scrolls in the corners and I will call them by their pet names I used to use when they were just small boys. I will do it for me without expectation that it will mean anything significant to them. But, just maybe --- maybe --- they will become keepsakes. Maybe a grandchild or a great grandchild will wonder about the woman who wrote and stop. Stop to ponder life in a different day when ink and words on paper were slowly being replaced by computers and cyberspace.

"It only takes a little spot,

to plant the seed,

Forget-me-not."