I read this in\u00a0a Wall Street Journal article a few weeks ago:<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama sent trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress on Monday, capping months of tense negotiations and setting the stage for a heated if brief fight between free-trade advocates and labor unions before the deals’ likely approval.\u00a0 The 4 p.m. arrival Monday on Capitol Hill of three over-sized envelopes addressed in calligraphy and bearing the president’s wax seal\u2014plus 16 boxes of documents\u2014offers Congress an opportunity to pass the three pacts, plus a related worker-assistance program, by mid-October.<\/em><\/p>\n This brief, well-written paragraph describes a unique and\u00a0important use of real paper and real ink.\u00a0 The White House sent three large envelopes with papers and sixteen boxes of documents to Congress.\u00a0 As a fan of actual paper serving us by bearing actual, printed words, I was glad to read it.\u00a0 I’m not saying I don’t like paper and ink’s virtual versions.\u00a0 Goodness knows, I spill plenty of cyber ink on reams of cyber paper writing this blog.\u00a0 I’m just\u00a0noting that sometimes words,\u00a0whether we use them for governance or art,\u00a0need to be borne on something tangible.\u00a0 Words should have weight in their meaning and sometimes in what carries them.\u00a0 I find it apt that words from the President, which should almost always be weighty and significant, are even sealed\u00a0with wax and addressed using calligraphy.<\/p>\n This reminds me, it confirms, really,\u00a0why I keep an actual journal, a notebook of everything from ideas to essays, tweets to shopping lists.\u00a0 Real ink and real paper take up space, they have a physical presence, and I think driving a pen across a page takes a little more time than tapping a keyboard.\u00a0 Sometimes real paper and ink even preserve (at least in my journal; certainly not in legislation sent from the White House to Congress) errors, first drafts and abandoned ideas.\u00a0 People still use these to record real-life stuff which includes literary strikes and home runs, both.\u00a0 I think that’s why I like them.\u00a0 It’s why I write significant verbiage on actual pages as well as these cyber ones, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read this in\u00a0a Wall Street Journal article a few weeks ago: President Barack Obama sent trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress on Monday, capping months of tense negotiations and setting the stage for a heated … Continue reading