The witch hazel is blazing bright yellow in the backyard, but at least so far, I’m working inside. I will work in chill but not damp chill (which we have today) — plus there is the sensitivity of the wonderful machine on which I type these words. One drop of moisture in the wrong place spells doom. Which has me thinking about the portability and beauty of paper and pen. 

I could no more do my work solely with those two items than I could with a stylus and clay tablet. But it’s worth mentioning how much freer one can feel with tools that weather the elements with fortitude and good cheer. 

The fickleness of the modern computer is one of those things that makes me feel I’m living my life atop a stormy sea of unknowingness. It’s a fair-weather implement that helps me when there’s power, but doesn’t when there’s not. I don’t really, truly understand how computers work, only that — somehow, miraculously — they do.

And of course, there’s the fact that this blog wouldn’t exist if I communicated  only with paper and pen. And there you have it: the modern dilemma in a nutshell … or at least one of its nutshells.

(Above: the little black book where I write when I’m not typing.)