Cursive Writing - weird and random personal late night musings

I was watching a live sporting event streamed from Japan but managed to be thinking and jotting things down during the luls. This is a typed transcription of what I have written on paper but I must admit to a certain level of intoxication on wine and other natural substances and now it's late and typing is tricky. I wanted to contribute something though that wasn't Clinton/Trump because I'm sick of all of it and for those that feel the same, here's something to think and talk about.

As transcribed from my scratchings on a piece of paper...

I'm having a Coke, a vape and a smoke and later some wine and I'll be fine but I'm trying to remember the last time I wrote in cursive and trying to see if I even remember how?

This is a skill I would not like to forget but wow! Am I ever rusty! I can't even write I properly. Okay, maybe I just got it? At least how to make a a capital "I".

I understand that many schools are no longer even teaching cursive but when and where is it used in the world and in your life instead of printing?

Do some people always write in "longhand"?

 

I spend all my life planted in front of a screen. I don't remember the last time I sent or received a hand written letter? Probably before screens and that's a shame.

I'm trying to remember how to write the letters and how they transition and connect to one another and some I'm not even sure I'm doing right?

I write a lot as anyone that's ever tried to wade through some of my mega posts knows. I used to write a lot on paper and must say that I am getting a certain satisfaction from the feel of a willing and delicious pen gliding across smooth and receptive paper.

 

I used to keep a written journal. I started it in 1976 when I was 21 and knew sex change surgery was scheduled and in the works within months. This was the most important thing in my life back then. (I'm almost 62 now) The last time I made an entry was on the 8th of November, 1992 when I began to question things and talked to myself about my then seven year old marriage that made it to 12 before I booked.

I started this little black book to document the completion of my medical transition from the sex I was born as to the gender that I was which had already been previously well established and acknowledged. People today make YouTube videos. I had been living fully as a girl for several years. from the time I was 18 at that point and had already had several different jobs, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc,. This little book has some incredible and interesting stories of crushes, loves, hopes, dreams, fears and life events and sometimes crushing problems or joys important enough to write down. I've been through a lot that doesn't even seem like part of my life anymore but every entry in this journal is written in cursive unlike my normal sloppy printing.

 

I do write a lot - I always have but since computers, it all seems to be digital? Documents and files have replaced shoe boxes of paper and in many ways, that's a loss.

I've recently gone through some long sealed boxes with things that were mine and some that were my mother's that passed away in 1980 at the age of 48. I've found pen pal letters that were actually letters, drafts I've written and replies I have received. I found love letters written but never sent and letters between my grandmother and my mother and letters from my biological father that never really understood me but tried. I also found many old pictures, some dating back to the 1930's and '40's and some photos of my early childhood. The digital legacy we leave will never be the same.

So, to answer my own question, tonight is the last time I've tried to write in cursive that I can remember. As I get a feel for it and it starts to come back and flow, it reminds me of the headspace or different parts of the brain that become engaged that don't when pounding away on a keyboard. I need to do this more often.

 

It's funny, my handwriting sucks whether I'm writing cursive or printing but my printing is at least generally legible.

If I were to write a heartfelt love letter with passion from the heart, I might try to write in cursive because it is more flowery and emotive or at least seems to touch a different part of my feelers?

I think of the strangest things sometimes which seems to satisfy my need for mental activity although the inquisitive voices remain constant. Sometimes, I listen though and find aspects of life to be fascinating that it makes it worth living. It's weird how putting pen to paper has caused this bit of introspection.

Please share your thoughts about cursive writing. For me, it seems to reach a different place inside of me. I want that back.

Cursive will go the way of runes and sanscrit. The same as all far distant means of communications that went before. Are children even required to write in Cursive ?

A necessary skill following the inevitable EMP by either our closest star or some other country's nuke.

It is a mistake to abandon analog ways. We'll need them when we return to Stone Age 2.0.

i learned cursive in 3rd grade like all the others students. realized that it was nothing more than adding in loops and serifs to connect letters. by 5th grade i used the non cursive "s" in place of the cursive "s", and just added in a serif to connect it.

Long story short: cursive isn't a mystical writing form that cannot be figured out independently by inteligent folks.

I rarely write. My handwriting is terrible. I type in the 80+ wpm range, so prefer it as a path of least resistance. When I do use a pen, its almost always simply to sign my name.

a reply to: Freija

Ive noticed over the years..I used to have a really cool autograph style in cursive of course (rock band member in the early days of r n r...another story)....but as of the last 4-5 years? Ive developed a combination of printing and cursive in the same words or sentences.

I do this now every single day in medical emergency reports and have to be careful to be legible...but strangely...I cannot stop using cursive along with printing in the same word....

a reply to: mysterioustranger

I do exactly the same thing. I think (for me) it comes from trying to be more legible with printing, but throwing in some cursive to save some time.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Me too...I type 80+ myself and am quicker that way...and Ive had a good cursive flow since Catholic grade school (you know...nuns beating knuckles!). My dad was a pharmacist and wrote like a doctor on a prescription....I was getting like that as well....

Then 4 years or 5 or so...for some reason(I do a lot of Incident reports daily)...I started splitting words...weirdest thing...half n half cursive and print.

Don't know why either! But I DO love Olde English and Edwardian fonts, and of course Caligraphy...

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for your comments on cursive writing. It's kind of a silly and insignificant topic that I posted just to get away from the political fervor gripping the board in its stranglehold lately. I found it amusing that writing a few words on paper while my computer was otherwise occupied streaming would kick off such strange thoughts and feelings that with the wine and everything, sent me on a tangent and reduced my inhibitions about sharing stupid things. It was a fluff piece that somehow also contained curious ties to some of the things I've been through in life. I know that gets obnoxious but do feel some obligation to share as a successful "elder".

After last night's epistle spurred by rare cursive penmanship, I took another look at the afore mentioned little black book that I've kept near me in a desk drawer as reference to some of the dates and stories I've posted in other threads. I've read back through parts of this journal several times over the years to in a way remind myself and re-live some of my triumphs and heartaches. I often laugh at myself or shake my head for being so stupid at frequently being wildly driven by passions, unrequited affections and those that were and often wonder how I ever made it through some of the challenges I faced in life? Who was that person?

It's all water under the bridge at this point and life is great but in reviewing the first few pages of this book, I discovered something I didn't remember at all; that this is Volume II and there's a Volume I out there somewhere. I knew I had writings and stories from all my school years but didn't recall organizing things into an official diary type thing.

Now I'm on a quest to find this forgotten journal. High school was extremely tumultuous and at times brutal and violent and was filled with depression, anxiety, embarrassment and a great loathing of my physical body that didn't jive with who I was as a person socially or emotionally. I know when I find this previous collection of my writings that they will be dark and full of difficult and painful things and talks to myself about suicide but now I'm darned interested to find it and to read some of the things I had to say. Who wouldn't be?

It's not that I'm self-obsessed but there have been a few uncommon twists and turns in my life and some of that is worth remembering and maybe even sharing? Now if I can just find this other long sealed box of memories if nothing else to see how often I wrote in cursive as opposed to printing and to see how screwed up things were in my youth although I really don't need to read something to remember?

Interestingly enough, I did print the title page of my little black journal that is now forty years old. At least I was astute enough to recognize "significant events" may only seem that way.



Every other page in this book I wrote cursive. Here is a transcription of the introduction page I offer simply for amusement and out of curiosity.

This book was purchased new on 10-14-76 in Phoenix, Arizona. My intent is to carry this book to Colorado to record my feelings and experiences during my hospitalization for sex reassignment surgery which is now finally scheduled after many years of struggle.

Volume I is a notebook first entered into on 2-3-73 while still in high school. At that time I had just turned 18 the month prior and had made the first progress towards becoming physically female by starting hormones.

I shall continue to use this journal in the same way that the previous one was used. Perhaps one day in the future this book will provide as much amusement and reflective insight as its predecessor?

It is quite appropriate that at a time in my life full of endings and beginnings, I start this new journal. It is my hope that these pages will not be filled with as much unhappiness and frustration as the last but rather show hope and a new inclination toward the positive?

Now I really need to find this older notebook. In a way, I almost don't want to but must admit, I'm now hella curious.

Thanks for reading.

Cursive just feels natural to me. We were all taught to write this way at the age of 5 or 6, so I have been doing it forever.
Most of my jobs have required entries in block capital or merely printed letters.
Always feels clunky and slow.

That said, my writing looks like I dipped a spider in an ink pot and chased it across the paper.

Haha! I forgot about this stupid thread. First post at 2:32 AM so you know I was up late drinking wine and having a bit of that of which we must not speak to even come up such with a dumb thing. It was just to distract myself and others at the time trying to escape some of the election madness.

My handwriting sucks regardless but I am good at computer business graphics and advertising materials, typography and making vinyl signs on my plotter. I still haven't found the Volume 1 of my past writings that I was looking for. Kind of lost the plot even looking for it.

I used to write all my stories in pen on lined A4 paper - in cursive.

Then I suppose I got lazy and began to type them on the computer. I think it's a pity I made that decision.

I felt more 'connected' somehow when I was handwriting them, I think they were better for it. I think I lost that connection when I used the computer because it's somehow 'one removed' from what I'm doing.

Also, for a stronger connection I much preferred to write with a pencil. I can't explain why, you'd just have to try it and see if it worked for you.

My problem was I paid too much attention to writer's cramp. I should have been prepared to suffer for my art - not have my art suffer for me