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People love to take pictures of their food. They love to take pictures of most things actually. Travel, activities, even a lot of regular everyday living is punctuated by any number of photographs. To send to friends and family, of course, to quickly and easily commemorate any occasion. I'm not about to write 1000 words on why pictures are bad and why we should be taking less of them, however I do wonder if a different world is possible.

I, clearly, like to write. I also think that writing is something is lost art. It's astonishing reading old letters from throughout history; realizing that for a huge amount of history the only form of creation, of transcribing thoughts and feelings into a physical piece, was writing. And only for a small amount of literate people for the most part.

Your grandparents and great-grandparents and just about every famous or notable person in history was a writer, because to record their words or communicate with others they had to be. Not only that, if they wanted to be good at communicating then they necessarily had to be a good writer. By the standards of today most of them were excellent; the amount of poetry contained in regular everyday communcations puts today's writing to shame.

There are a remarkable number of mundane experiences these days that are captured with a quick cellphone photo or video sent instantly to loved ones around the globe. To do the equivalent of this before the advent of instant communication technology was much more difficult, and required much more thoughtfulness and care. The simple act of sitting down for minutes or hours to faithfully convert a human experience into words and letters is an act of love and care that is hard to replicate these days.

Another aspect of this is how unfaithful photos and videos can be compared to writing. So much food these days is Instagram optimized, and so many people reach into their pocket as their very first act after the plate hits the table. It's certainly nice to see your friends and family eating yummy looking food, but so little of the important parts of the sensory experience of food is captured in the photo.

When I'm eating a nice piece of food, the flavor is obviously the first thing I think about. The textural sensation of the food as its enters my mouth, the sound it makes as I chew, the warmth or cold of it as moves to my stomach. Then there's the smell, the aftertaste, the mouthfeel, the utensils. All of that is essential to the way we experience the food, and only thin simulacrums of that are captured in a photo or video.

It's definitely nice that cameras exist to be able to give others a quick, instant glimpse into our lives, or to easily record memories. However, it feels like writing has fallen so out of fashion in culture that most people don't consider the potential that it could unlock. I wish that it was more common to occasionally write letters to others or to your future self. I feel like it's the truest way to really capture a moment.

I guess this is where journaling comes into play. I mean, this entire blog is a form of journaling after all, and it's even cooler when people journal regularly with traditional pencil and paper. No photo or video or recording technology can substitute for journal entry written by your own hand from 5 or 10 years ago.

In fact, I think real journaling might be the only way to really truly capture a moment and preserve it across time. People change so incredibly and unexpectedly quickly; before your very eyes you'll transform into an entirely different person. Feelings that were once second nature will suddenly be impossible to evoke, no matter how hard you try. Writing is a way to inhabit another person's mindset, even that other person is your from 10 years ago.

Plus, the slow nature of journaling can be more of a benefit than an obstacle. Being forced to sit down and work through a thought or idea for many minutes straight can make you appreciate things on a deeper level. An almost meditative experience, stopping to smell the roses will make them all the sweeter.

There's another aspect of this that translates into the way people talk and think as well. I would postulate that some amount of the uninteresting and repetitive modes of speech that are common have to do with a decline of writing. I've noticed things like repeating the same word more and more times for emphasis. Instead of saying something like "that's a very very beautiful sky", there's all kinds of more powerful descriptive imagery that would be nice to hear if people had bigger vocabularies.

I think there's been a similar proliferation of swear words. People overuse profanity for so many different uses and meanings, oftentimes being repetitive just for emphasis, that it kind of makes me feel bad for all the other words that might have fallen by the wayside. Not even because I mind the swear words in particular, but because I feel like there used be so much linguistic spice that is now so bland.

I suppose this is the appeal of having a penpal. I already have my outlets to get some writing in, but it might be nice to have a place to describe a delicious meal or beautiful sunset in a more complete way than what images can provide. At the very least, I'd encourage everyone else to give it a try. It's kind of like occasionally going to karaoke or giving painting a try; just a fun creative skill that if sufficiently refined can widen your view of the world

For now, I'd hope to think more carefully about the way I write on here. I know it's meant to be a stream of thought, but pausing to be more careful about my words and will hopefully ultimately improve the way I think and vocalize things too.