Cursive is an Art Form

Where is Becky?
What has she been up to?

You know, I don't even know myself.

This year started out bad for me with the flu. Now I have a horrible head cold and it's only mid-February.
I'm tired of being sick.

I've been depressed too, which only makes things worse.

But, enough of me.

I have not stopped working on projects.
And now I have several ones that need to be posted and this all takes so much effort for me because I'm so slow at typing, at figuring out html and resizing pics and blah, blah, blah.

So I'll just jump in, shall I?

I have completed two vintage needlepoints which I bought on etsy. One was barely started and the other not at all.
These are old Zodiac "Gemini" kits from 1977 with real Persian wool to work with. They were so stunning I fell in love with them, (and I don't even have a Libra or Gemini in my family to give them to!) LOL!!
Please click on the photos to enlarge them.



First is the Libra. This was started in the upper right corner but only just an inch or two and then they gave up.
I love the colors on these retro kits! And the stylized cursive is so beautiful!



Next I worked on the Aries. Look at that ram! It's so awesome!



As I was working on these needlepoints, I was hearing in the news all about how they are considering not teaching cursive writing any more in the classroom.
UNBELIEVABLE! I was shocked!
I began to wonder how long it would be before no one could even read this very needlepoint that I was working on!
It made me so sad.

I thought about the movie Time Machine. (The story was written by H.G. Wells.)
Anyway, the original movie was made in 1960. It's about a man from Victorian England, (played by Rod Taylor), who travels forwards in time. He discovers that after years of atomic wars there are two races of people left on earth.
The underground dwellers, (Morlocks) and the above ground dwellers, (the naive, Eloi).

I remembered a scene where the leading man asks the Eloi about their people. Their culture.
Who were they? Where did they come from?
What is their history? Where are their places of learning?
Where is their literature?

He is shown a crumbling old book which the Eloi can't even read.
No one can read or write.
They are like children.
.......

With the advent of computers and e-books, I can see how this could really happen.
If children no longer learn the basics of handwriting or know the beautiful flow of putting thought to paper, what will become of them?

Suppose there were to be some catastrophic events like this in movie?
Suppose computers and "The Grid" were suddenly wiped away.

Will it be too late to relearn how to write?
Will we lose it all?

I thought about how we are now raising a bunch of Eloi children.
People who won't even be able to read the Constitution of the United States.

Perhaps they'll be lucky enough to have someone come along who will interpret it for them.
Someone from the past who will know the value of the written word.