By James Wallace Harris, Friday, October 31, 2014
It’s amazing how some old sayings reflect unfathomably deep wisdom. Two of which that come to mind are “Use it or lose it” and “You don’t know what you’ll miss until it’s gone.” Some of these old sayings don’t become relevant until you’re old, which is a shame, because such knowledge would give the young a savvy advantage. It’s always difficult to predict what to keep using until you need it in the future.
Take handwriting. Until a few weeks ago when I discovered it was gone and I missed it, I never gave it two thoughts. When I had a pinched nerve in my neck and couldn’t type for a few weeks, I truly missed the ability to write in cursive. Now that I can type again, I’ll probably forget that I really needed to write without a machine. I’m sure one day I’ll again regret the loss of that skill, so I should practice it now. But I won’t, will I?
The trick now is to recognize the skills we do wish to keep, and keep practicing them. Blogging has taught me the value of practicing verbal skills. Both for writing and speaking. If I stop blogging for any length of time I feel my ability to use words begin to fade. It’s subtle, but it’s there. If I go without writing long enough, it’s not even subtle.
When I was younger, and watching my father’s generation of men die off, my uncles and other older guys I knew, seemed to withdraw into themselves as the years passed by, and talked less and less. I know I’m making crude generalizations here, but men, and maybe women, seem to lose their conversational abilities as wrinkles become more numerous. When I was young I assumed aging involved a withdrawal from life, either from boredom, lack of interest, or a diminishing urge for self-expression. Now I wonder if it’s a fading ability to communicate. Either put words together into concise thoughts, or lose the ability.
When I don’t blog my mental muscles to shape paragraphs gets flabby. Since most of my friends are women, I tend to spend most of my time listening. I’ve lost the ability to argue, and my verbal skills of discussing ideas are beginning to fade too. When I do talk to men, our old ability to battle with words has been lost to a détente of friendship. My old buddies are guys that I agree with, and I’ve given up on confrontational acquaintances. Maybe I should be more aggressive in my blog writing and find some wordy foes to spar with.
If the only thing you do is watch television, then the only skills you’ll have when you get old is sitting and watching. Maybe that’s why all the old men I knew stopped talking?
Every time I write an essay I can feel my brain working out. It’s like being at the gym and pumping iron – I can feel I’m lifting heavier concepts with systematic practice. I doubt blogging is for everyone, but I expect everyone needs some kind of verbal exercise that includes both conversation and writing. And it may even help to learning handwriting again.
JWH – Happy Halloween
Auxiliary Memory 
“Maybe I should be more aggressive in my blog writing and find some wordy foes to spar with.” — you’ve sparred with me before 😉
Actually, Joachim I can’t remember one time we disagreed – other than than now.
We argued about satire in SF and “non-realistic” SF….
Did we argue, or did merely profess our divergent attitudes about satire? I’ve come to learn that you like a lot of books that I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I disagree with you. We both seem to love SF book covers from the same era, but that doesn’t mean we agree either. You’d have to be a climate change denier, or creationist to get me riled up.
Thanks for the insight. As a writer myself I need to make sure I sit down and write something every day-in longhand!
If I’m not writing my blog, I’m reading someone else’s. Most bloggers are more interesting than professional columnists anyway.
It’s “good” to know my increasing tendency to listen and not speak is perhaps general male trait.
What a information of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable knowledge about unpredicted emotions.