Elementary teachers emphatically taught my classmates and me to practice good penmanship and to write in longhand cursive. My third-grade classmates and I worked hard until we passed muster, to varying degrees. Some kids excelled with beautiful style. Others wished that they could do ANYTHING BUT practice handwriting — like hara-kiri.
I’m grateful that I enjoyed writing longhand cursive. Though I am no calligrapher, I still enjoy pulling out a piece of paper or journal to write in cursive that is distinctively mine.
Done well, handwritten cursive is beautiful. Examples of 19th century personal correspondence, ledger entries, everyday notes, certificates, and even official documents written by hand with lovely script are, I find, a joy to admire.
I’m disappointed that today’s students aren’t taught to write in cursive. The computer and cell phone digital keypads are their comfort zones now. Too bad, really. Each time I compose a letter or a personal message in a greeting card to my young friends I must remember to print because they cannot read cursive. That’s sad on many levels.
I still enjoy writing by hand, though I admit my longhand is a bit rough these days. I simply don’t write regularly in cursive. The occasional times I choose to use a fountain pen my cursive instantly improves. I am more mindful.
Selecting a fountain pen from my small collection means that I must take time to inspect the pretty nib, clear it of any dried ink, then fill a cartridge with fresh ink. Simultaneously, I’m reminded why ballpoint pens were invented!
Maintaining a fountain pen takes effort and, for me, usually ends with inky fingertips. I’m fine with the additional steps because the annoyance of first making a pen functional is always outweighed by the joy of writing with it. Bonus: using a cool ink color like violet, burn umber, or emerald green.
Fountain pens bring to mind a particular customer who regularly visited the custom photography lab where I worked during college to earn money for tuition. I was always pleased to see this customer pay by a check that he wrote at the sales counter. His name was Larry L. Smith. I remember Larry because he was such a nice man who invariably pulled a beautiful fountain pen from his breast pocket to fill in the check. Unscrewing the cap, he placed the gorgeous gold and silver nib on the paper and proceeded to ink a lyrically flourished “L” on his first name. Then another smooth “L” swoosh for his middle initial, punctuated properly with a pretty period, of course. Finally, he lavished a stunning capital “S” for his surname. I wondered why Larry always used a fountain pen on every check. So, I asked him.
Larry shared his story.
When he was a schoolboy, he severely fractured his left hand and wrist. While his hand was incapacitated, he taught himself to write and do other tasks with his right hand. It took him a long time and concentrated effort to master legible printed letters with his non-dominant hand. As he became more skilled as a righty, he proceeded to learn his signature in cursive. Larry decided the reward for his boyhood diligence would be to forever present his hard-won right-handed signature with a fountain pen. Way to go Larry! Very classy.
Let’s hear it for glorious fountain pens and the sumptuous flow of cursive. Hip hip hooray!
Scrjbbles: J's random writings 
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