A 21st century life

I just finished reading a biography of a remarkable woman I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never heard of until recently, Martha Gellhorn. The book was written by the daughter of one of Gellhorn's close friends. It evolved mostly from Gelhorn's personal diaries and notes she took as a war correspondent for three wars: the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War. Another major source were the letters between Gellhorn and friends and political and literary luminaries of her time. The title of the book is Martha Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life.

I wonder if that book would have been able to be written if she had lived a 21st century life. Would her notes have been recorded on her laptop? Her journal on her iPad? Would her correspondents have saved her emails, and she theirs?

I mean truly, how many emails do you save for posterity? And what is posterity in the digital age? Let's say Gellhorn wrote her 21st century notes in Microsoft Office 2010. Would the daughter of a friend be able to read that version forty years later when she got the notion to write that book? Would they be saved on some external hard drive gathering dust in some attic somewhere? Or worse, what if it was on a flash drive?

I remember 5-1/4 inch floppy drives from the 80's. All my college papers are on those somewhere. What are the chances that my grandchildren could one day find and read those files? (Yes, I flatter myself.)

I'm sure all the great libraries are finding ways to preserve the work of our notable 21st century writers...but their emails? Their e-cards? Their LinkedIn accounts? Facebook? Blogs? Twitter? Is Twitter forever?? And does The Library of Congress care about it?

When I started writing this blog, one of my expressed purposes was creating a legacy for my children, in light of a rather dire cancer diagnosis. But I don't have a clue how to preserve these electronic words for them. Am I going to print them and put them into some sort of archival binder? Is Blogger always going to be around?

And, then there's the art of handwriting. It's not taught in our American schools anymore. The teachers just let it evolve on its own because soon the kids will be composing everything on a laptop, copied to a flash drive. There's no more personality in the way you physically examine writing...just the choice of which annoying color and font-of-the-month to use.

And, then there's the relaxed time frame of traditional letter writing. You put a letter in a mailbox, and it takes a few days to arrive. Then the recipient may take a few days before she replies. It's not a system that easily allows for reactionary, heated exchange. You, by necessity, have time to consider your words and your state of mind.

Something's being lost here, people. And while I fully embrace the technical age...hell, I'm writing this entry on my iPad at thirty thousand feet...I'm worried about our collective human history that's tied to WiFi and battery life and a dependable Internet service provider...oh yeah, and electricity. All it used to take was a pen and some paper...or some colored clay and a reasonably flat cave wall.

So, make me feel better...go pull out some old stationery or even just white printer paper, if that's all you've got...and write a letter IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING to someone. Put it in a real envelope...don't panic, they have some for sale at the post office if you don't have any laying around the house. Put a stamp on it (they sell those at the post office too)...and mail it, the old fashioned way.

One day, that letter may be a crucial part of your life story.