Lost Knowledge
There are piles of tomes somewhere, stacked high to the ceiling, stretched wide to the walls. To open these dusty covers causes rise to a creak, similar to that of scarcely used joints. C-R-EEA-K! The leather binding jumps and quivers in excitement and in defense against the possibility of damage. What lies inside these pages are ideas protruding from the past. Ideas written or typed out with heightened concentration and diligence. Zealous ideas which rode on the crest of passion and crashed down in a region or the world. These eloquently pronounced ideas added fuel to an already present flame, causing fire to burn for days or to smolder for centuries.
Gone is the time of opulent, gold-studded ideas, where isolated masters hold their foreheads in their hands to drive out, in gilded words, exactly what they desire to convey. There are too many of us and we all have something to say. The internet is the great medium, for swiftness to travel and vastness of audience. The transmission of thought through books has become irrelevant. What was once proclaimed by one is now computed out by hundreds, for millions sit every day hunched before the glowing screen. But, this is also beauty achieved. Art for the masses! As only the internet has rights to claim.
The prompt for this badgering? Last week I bicycled my typewriter in to be cleaned and serviced. The place: California Typewriter Company. The address: 2362 San Pablo Ave., Berkely CA 94702. The phone number: (510) 845.3780. Proving there are still masters of what one, at first glance, would consider to be lost knowledge. Profuse thanks to the craftsman who can persuade the tab bell into dinging again, who can extricate the keys and arms from built up oil, who can clear the carriage from all obstruction. Embedded in this expertise is history. What once was can never be again, but it would be an embarrassment if all was forgotten.
I write on a typewriter because I am in need of the balance the sound of the keys provide. This Olivetti Lettera 22 is real. Our world is slowly becoming saturated with what is not. The world of computers can provide visibility, but can not give vision. If it is the pounding out of your deepest self that pushes you, try a typewriter, there are some awesome ones for sale at the pre-mentioned location. Remember, within everyone is the omnipotent, there is potential flowing within all your atoms, flowing out to your pores and beyond. What the final product may be is your own, may it be something great.
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