Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books

  • Home
  • About
    • Work With Me
    • My CV
    • Series
  • Newsletter
  • Advertising
  • Tools
You are here: Home / Potpourri / What Scratched Paper Can Do

What Scratched Paper Can Do

What Scratched Paper Can Do

It is amazing when considered, the things that scratched paper can do.

You can literally sit down right now, with a warm drink and a few cold and bound pieces of paper, and know what Winston Churchill thought as Word War II began.

Through time and space, by scratching ink into thin paper, you can sense the warmness and stillness of the kitchen in the childhood home of Corrie Ten Boom.

And Bill Bryson can make you laugh from a walk he took so many years ago.

That we communicate over the generations in this rudimentary way…

It is stunning, if you think about it.

Rather, I simply want to emphasize that, having better understood the near-miracle of our ability to decode marks on paper, we are left with a truth equally remarkable: that some of us greatly desire to do so, and that some of us find abiding consolation in what we encounter when our eyes scan words on the page in those strange jerky saccades. That images striking the retina can be transferred to the edge of the left occipito-temporal fissure, and there can be decoded, is extraordinary; that what is decoded there can bring tears to the eyes, or cause laughter to rise up from the diaphragm, or bring to a deeply unhappy boy cut off from his beloved mother a few hours, or many hours, of joy … I don’t have words to express how deeply strange this is. I encouraged you in my previous section to “read at whim!”—but why would anyone ever be struck by that particular whim? This is a mystery.

-Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: PotpourriTagged With: #Communication, #Reading

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Privacy Policy

Connect

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Free Weekly Newsletter:

Search

Recent Posts

  • When One Spouse Is More Religious
  • The Three Virtues Of A Programmer
  • It’s Broken In Production
  • This Sounds Like Home
  • Don’t Kill Your Darlings?
  • This Wisdom, Power, And Love
  • You Can Move To Save
  • Random Thoughts – 284
  • But I Am At Work Somehow
  • The Week In Review – 261
  • Turning Pro, By: Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne
  • COVID Vaccine
  • Leaving For College Feels Like This?
  • The Warren Buffett Investing Strategy
  • Coffee And Grumpy Day For You
  • When A Summer Camp Counselor Has The Day Off
  • How Texas Country Is Texas Tech
  • Messy Head Of Hair Back To
  • The Most Important Job in The World
  • Fine Day But Who Cares For
  • Fun Where One Finds It
  • 5 Things I Learned Reading: 300 Arguments, By: Sarah Manguso
  • Redeeming What Cannot Be
  • The Week In Review – 260
  • Random Thoughts – 283

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Tricky Lily Pad Riddle (You Probably Can't Solve)
    The Tricky Lily Pad Riddle (You Probably Can't Solve)
  • 31 Persuasion Tips That I Learned From Scott Adams
    31 Persuasion Tips That I Learned From Scott Adams
  • My Notes On, The Applause of Heaven, By: Max Lucado
    My Notes On, The Applause of Heaven, By: Max Lucado
  • My Notes On, In the Eye of The Storm, By: Max Lucado
    My Notes On, In the Eye of The Storm, By: Max Lucado
  • Mastermind, By: Maria Konnikova
    Mastermind, By: Maria Konnikova
  • Government Shut Down
    Government Shut Down
  • Another Great Riddle For You To Try
    Another Great Riddle For You To Try
  • When One Spouse Is More Religious
    When One Spouse Is More Religious
  • Can You Solve The Bat And Ball Riddle?
    Can You Solve The Bat And Ball Riddle?
  • Just Edit Out The Boring Stuff?
    Just Edit Out The Boring Stuff?

Copyright © 2021 · Generate Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in