Thankful for my computer, and my printer.

Can you imagine how delighted the old prophets would have been, to sit down at a keyboard and type the revelations of God, then send them out via the Internet? Instead of inscribing them on parchment, or writing them on metal plates in Egyptian shorthand?

I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and if you were to sit on my couch and listen to me type, you could hear it in my touch. Bangety-bang, clackety-clack. Sometimes I almost miss reaching up for the return lever. I remember when IBM brought out their Selectric typewriters, with the little metal ball that rotated, and the tape that engaged when you hit the backspace key and lifted each mistake off the page. [My children are going whaaaat????]

I remember the MagA, where a page and a half of information was stored on a thick magnetic Hollerith-sized card. Made statistical typing at an accounting firm into a [relative] piece of cake, and my typing speed soared to approximately 120wpm because I could go back and fix things later. I went to MagA training in 1976 and was expected to train the rest of the typing pool. IBM had figured out that the learning curve was approximately six weeks. I had it in three days, by the grace of Heaven. Our entire typing pool was up and running on the new system in a couple of weeks, although we only had one of the $10K MagA machines and had to take turns using it.

All this is apropos of what? I am teaching the lesson in Relief Society tomorrow. I went to the Church’s website, printed off a copy of the First Presidency’s message for December, and am now headed to the couch to mark it up and pray over which portions to emphasize in my lesson. If I do any handouts, I will copy the talk into Word and separate it into sections or wordstrips.

What would have taken me hours of hand-lettering or calligraphy [because I am primarily a visual learner, and all about the visual aids] is now accomplished in a matter of minutes. Which leaves me more time for prayer and ponder-ish-ness, as one of my kids might say.

Yes, there will be knitting today. Knit happens on a regular basis, chez Ravelled. But first there will be reading, and breakfast, and writing, before the mundane kicks in. And I am pretty excited about that.