Sunday, January 20, 2019

HOME CLEAN ENERGY -- CURSIVE SIGNATURE -- LETTERS


A few matters occupying some of my time and attention ......


RAIN – we got lots of soaking-the-ground rain with four successive storms over almost a week to combat the drought where I live – Hooray!  No one in our neck-of-the-woods was subjected to flooding, mud or rock slides, but we usually aren’t -- unlike other areas of Southern California in the Hollywood hills, coastal Malibu area near scenic Pacific Coast Hwy, or wild-fire damaged areas. 


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LOCAL CHANGES -- possible in future for other cities  ......

CLEAN ENERGY OPTION FROM POWER COMPANY
Our city has entered into a program with our electric power company that is providing options transitioning residents power source to clean energy.   Our local newspaper, The Claremont Courier, has offered a two minute plus video link HERE succinctly explaining our choices and what appears to be nominal cost differences.  I will be making a selection.

I wonder if any of you have encountered similar clean energy programs being offered by your community electric power companies?  If not, be aware this may be the future in more communities across the U.S. – or in the rest of the world, too(?).    Your comments and observations about such programs are welcome.

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LIVING COSTS -- going up .....

RESIDENTIAL INSURANCE
After all these years, in the past two we've started receiving notices from utilities, also the city regarding sewer lines, gas lines, disclaiming any responsibility for the integrity of that portion of pipes/lines beginning at our property line to our house should they develop leaks, breakage.  We’re then informed of Insurance for these lines we can purchase and have the cost automatically added to our monthly bill – five dollars more here, and five more dollars there as this contributes to increasing the  cost of living.   We’d already had an increase in general sewage and other fees.

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CITY REDISTRICTING .....

Our city is also changing our City Council composition from electing five city-wide Council members to establishing five defined districts with a representative from each.  Seems there is a purported risk legal action could be taken by others (though presently none immediately threatened) that would cost the city considerable money in attorney fees even if we didn’t need to change.    

One of the issues will be to guard against gerrymandering.   We do have some ethnic /minority groups making up the majority of residents in various parts of our cities.  For example, the report noted a predominance of Mexicans in one area and Asians in another area.   I wonder if this redistricting will bring to the forefront more meaningful representation or accentuate, even invite, more dissension based on what can be politically dividing factors?


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CURSIVE SIGNATURE OBSOLETE – LETTERS A NOVELTY?
I received a letter from my elementary age grandson this week.  We began exchanging occasional letters when he was younger.   His first letters were pictures he drew, then he progressed to printing words, later sentences.   I’m told that he really enjoys receiving letters.  I continue to use block print alphabet letters though he’s of an age now when schools used to teach cursive hand writing.    Then, I recalled, they don’t teach cursive in most schools any more.   That’s a change to which I have not yet completely adapted in my mind. 

We can tell a lot about a person by their handwriting that I don’t think hand printed block letters reveal.  This has been one area of assessment in my professional work which reveals vital fine motor, language, cognitive and other functional skills. 

On a personal level a family member or friend’s handwriting gave even a lay person some indication of a loved one’s physical health and mental status in ways that won’t be as readily revealed with other writing.  But I guess that’s what happens with most change – we lose some features that are useful and hope those losses are offset by more but different benefits than those lost. 

I suddenly found myself thinking – my grandson will have no signature – or at least the traditional signature as I think of it.   Of course, I know credit card companies no longer require signatures on charges.   But a person having no signature – that seems really strange to me as I think of a signature as highly unique and personal that everyone would prize as part of their identity.  

He could develop his signature at any age though, if he wanted one.   Also, there are free web sites that aid in creating a signature in any desired font to use on the Internet with keyboarding which I suppose someone could even practice developing to write in cursive if they desired.   But where would he use a signature?   We no longer are required to sign items – checks are becoming obsolete for financial transactions.

Seems really strange to me that eventually, actually soon, even now, many people will no longer be able to read cursive writing.    I recently heard an anecdotal news tale of a grandmother writing her teenage granddaughter an actual paper and pen letter, but the girl couldn’t read it – thought it was a foreign language.  

Meanwhile, I’m going to continue periodically writing letters to my grandson -- hand printing in block letters as I don’t want to run them on Word and off the printer.   His parents say he really looks forward to receiving my letters in the mail.   I wonder if they are so rare as to qualify for “Show and Tell” at school as a novelty, or would they just be out-of favor -- considered ancient,  old-fashioned and of no interest?   Will they be valuable antiques some day?  

22 comments:

  1. What a very thought provoking post. I hadn't considered the demise of handwriting in that way until you bought it up. If it's any comfort you still sign things in the UK, particularly important papers like house purchase contract, mortgages, loans and wills. I imagine video cameras could record signings in more than one location in some fashion, but there would always be the sneaking feeling that someone could fake it or interfere with the process. So I think there will always be a role for signatures.

    As a teenager I had loads of penfriends, garnered from the small ads in music papers, and even visited a few during the holidays. I also wrote to a lot of zines and through that made friends I still see regularly 35 years later. Your writing about your grandson took me back to the excitement of waiting for the post, of opening a thick letter from a promising correspondent, of setting aside an evening to write a lengthy response. While it's lovely to 'correspond' with hundreds or thousands of people online with a post, I'm starting to feel like I should get my fountain pen out and write an actual, physical letter to someone. Thank you for the inspiration!

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    1. Those who haven’t learned how to form letters in cursive to create their signature will need one for those wills, mtgs, legal papers you mention, I guess.. Your pen pal letters sound very interesting. I never had a pen pal or knew about acquiring one.

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  2. I went to a shower about five years ago and the mother-to-be could not read what was written in cards---had to have them read to her---because she can't read cursive. It just seems so wrong not to need it anymore, like society is going backward in education. Kids won't even know how to find information with things like Alexa and Siri.

    We don't have a program like your clean energy choices. Sounds like a good idea in areas where they they use the sun and wind for energy.

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    1. Even now, our searches are dependent upon what any of these search engines offer. Are there more references we don’t know about or could find in our own written word library searches?

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  3. I regret the idea of cursive becoming obsolete. Soon it will become older folks secret code. I do still write checks and like having the physical say on who gets my money and not have it whisked electronically out of my account.

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    1. I’ve thought, too, about cursive writing becoming a secret code — like the Navajo Code Talkers In spoken language. I wonder if people are more removed from their funds with the automatic charges, deposits, so less likely to monitor funds? Making charges can be very easy, but ciorrecting errors, cancelling, can be much more time consuming and complicated.

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  4. Mrs. Jones, God bless her soul, was my 5th grade elementary teacher and in my day she was charged with teaching all us cowboys and cowgirls the art of cursive writing. I should note that she was also the ‘art’ teacher. Of course what one had to do with the other was of little interest to us but to Mrs. Jones cursive writing was the one thing where the two could be combined and it was of little consequence as to whether one could draw or paint.

    And when the learning process was complete I found myself totally consumed with the art of cursive writing. I loved it. In fact there would be times when I would write up a paper for homework and then go back and rewrite it just to see if I could make it look even better.

    And throughout my lifetime I can’t say how many times I have filled out a check or signed a document and had people comment as to how beautiful my handwriting was. And each time my thoughts always drifted back to those days in Mrs. Jones’ 5th grade class. I always knew who had instilled the talent in me and now in these days and times it breaks my heart to see the art of cursive writing slowly fade away.

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    1. What a delightful story! Thanks for sharing it here.

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  5. Ohio's new governor--republican conservative, sigh--has made reinstituting the teaching of cursive a priority.

    As far as needing a signature, it's interesting to note that when we purchased a lakeside property several years ago, all of our docs were signed online electronically (veri-sign). We never even touched a piece of paper.

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    1. Had no idea your Gov. was pushing for cursive — interesting to know. So, even legal papers aren’t requiring an individual’s hand-written signature.

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  6. I see rants regularly on FB about the demise of cursive but I find myself on the other side of that. Evolution of language and technology and adaptation is difficult for many elders. I love in a building where elders can't communicate with their grands and greats as they don't "believe" in smartphones or computers and are appalled at texting rather than phoning. They wind up lamenting the past and written invitations and letters and cosy phonecalls. I find texting fantastic. Not consuming my time, points made, ideas and opinions shared.

    Yeah, cursive is gone the way of the carrier pigeon. I can't say that's sad and I still journal in cursive and send out cards but realize this will all pass when we do.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. I hadn’t realized there were such pockets of people that resistant to digital communication — their loss. I want it all in some fashion without the total demise of cursive, but not sure how that could be. Perhaps just elective classes when older for those who want to learn — but would likely have limited use — like Sanskrit?

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  7. I had a pen pal in Germany and one in the UK for years.There was a co,mpany in Turku finland that handled them. Dieter - the German- andI corresponded for years until he entered the Army. We reconnected in early 2000 and caught each other up on the missing years and that was almost as when we started.

    Good timing - just last week one of the local electric providers was makimg similar announcements but it seems CA is taking the lead on this as apparently some localities are now requiring the use of solar on new builds.

    Cursive is not the only languaage`being ignored these days. When we first moved to Texas in 1994 or so in a meeting with my sons English teacher she shared the new method of teaching English. Also gone is sentence diagramming - a great way to teach sentence structure. The young teacher was nearly as exasperated as I over that. In that regard our society is most definitely in decline.

    North Carolina is in hot water for past gerrymandering. It is being addressed right now. The GOP is trying to eliminate the competition.

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    1. Your reunited correspondence with your German penpal after the war would have made some interesting reading. Sentence diagramming did go by the wayside I recall now, too. So, Texas utilities moving to the clean power, too — expect other states, too ‘ere long. Yes, the GOP really has Calif. targeted to pursue as more and more of our voters reject them. Perhaps a new and different Party will emerge to provide sane and sensible opposition so our Dems don’t go too far astray as politicians can.

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  8. Due to essential tremors (familial in my case) my nice handwriting has disappeared. I envy those who can still write legibly. Now if i want to communicate with anyone, it's typed. I had to write it for a renewed permit and wondered how the authorities would see it as it's nothing like it was.

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    1. Our signature can change over time for many reasons. Apparently authorities make allowances for that from what you described. Certainly lots of benefits to not be totally dependent on our handwriting and glad you can use them. You still have the skill of being able to read cursive though maybe few occasions when you might need to do so.

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  9. The signature thing is a bit weird to me as well. Thirty year ago, I remember getting serious eye for having a signature on my passport that did not totally match the one I produced for whomever I was stood in front of. My signature had morphed somewhat between the ages of 18 and 25. Now, we have thumb and retinal ID. Our script is less important, if at all now.

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    1. Signature matching mattered when I worked in a bank for a couple of years long ago. As you say, much less important now, and not at all in many instances.

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  10. My grandson, who is in third grade, does not write cursive. His signature will be very easy to forge. Lol.

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    1. I guess any signature in his name would be acceptable.

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  11. Today is Cursive writing day.

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    1. Coincidence then that we are writing about cursive.

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