This Electric Life: Paper
You know there’s potential for magic when you meet a prospective client for the first time and you both pull out your Levenger notepads and then you bond over their index cards, notebooks, and fountain pens.
Yes, ma’am, I’m back to paper.
It’s a switch I’ve been contemplating for awhile—something that started last summer while I was wandering through a Filofax store in Paris and I only just suppressed the urge to forego my iPhone for the old-fashioned comfort of a weekly planner and contact book bound in tan pebbled leather. Only just.
One day a few weeks back-during a break between intake sessions in the city-I strolled over to Macy’s in the Water Tower, up the escalator to the Levenger nook, and picked up a three-pack of gridded paper, a workhorse fountain pen, and a box of Empyrean ink cartridges. And after years of typing notes into my laptop, I began to write again.
Which felt strange; it literally took a full half-day to get my cursive groove back, and my hand cramped a few times as I scrawled my notes through the afternoon.
But I think it was-and continues to beworth it. There’s something to be said about the absence of bright shiny objectstweets, inbox counters, facebook notifications, and document icons-in front of you when you’re really trying to think and listen. For this technogeek, paper’s the new must-have gadget.
N.B.: Voltaire spends his weekends trying to figure out how Andy Rooney got his sweet gig. Until 60 Minutes calls him to fill Andy’s spot, The Electric Life must suffice.
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