Ode to the word processor

Churn as the world might; much of it diffuse and ill conceived, some things come along that are a Godsend. For me, it's the word processor. the nifty program I'm using now. Sure there are bigger things; the wheel, mathematics, movable type. One might also throw in cultural, industrial, and political advancements, but in truth those are slowly turning us into anonymous cogs in a machine we can't control.

But I digress.

The methodologies, if I may use such terms, of the past involved hand writing, block printing, presses, typewriters. All improvements, but all geared best to those who can put words to paper with a minimum of editing or rewriting. For the rest of us; an awful lot of work to get out what we mean to say in the manner we wish to express.

Word processors changed all that. Now you can put every little thought down, to be edited, rewritten, rearranged, purged, reformed, re-imagined without the need for reams of paper, cartridges, ribbons, whiteout, and the like. No more settling for OK, or doable because the prospect of rewriting drowns you in barrels of self loathing and pity. No more retyping an entire page due to a spelling or grammatical mistake. Instead corrections are made quickly and easily. Spelling and grammar can be checked by the program. Words, sentences, paragraphs; entire portions of texts moved or reconfigured by a keystroke.

For someone like me; sheer delight. As much as I like to pontificate; writing was a drudgery akin to counting peas on a plate. I found no joy in going back over texts to check for typos, grammatical errors, or misspellings because I knew I would find them and then be tasked, when I could be doing something else; anything else, to making things right. I don't like my work to appear malformed or lacking in a certain level of commitment, so, inevitably, my fastidiousness would be my undoing and I would be compelled to redo it.

The other problem I encountered was the willingness to accept mediocrity rather than execute another rewrite. It's good enough; it'll pass. Yeah, I'd really like to change this up, but it's due tomorrow, and I've spent enough time dealing with the production of the paper, and that's what we're talking about here, and I don't want to go through that again. Consequently, what could have been better, or maybe, even sublime was lost to my unwillingness to go the extra mile. Now I can carry on and on with no sense of proportion or decorum. Life's little pleasures indeed.

Naturally, there a few caveats; a few downsides. Hard drive might crash. Website might cease to exist. Clouds do blow away. Some programs are far more cumbersome than they need to be, and have so many features that to actually learn to use them would eat into valuable writing time. But all things being equal, for this writer, a wonderful thing.