Nov/Dec 2011 - Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library

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Manager/Curator for the RMPL Map Collection This person can design the job, including the hours committed per week. It basically involves spending time continuing to organize the extensive map collection and developing an index system for easily locating the maps, and, finally; map preservation. You’ll have the map office all ready to work from in the annex. Please let Sergio know if interested at 303- 759-9921. Holiday Party Scheduled For All Volunteers Scribblings VOLUNTEER PAGE Many New Opportunities For Volunteers Wednesday Afternoon 1:00-4:00 Available We have an immediate opening for a Wednesday afternoon front desk volunteer. That volunteer “gets to control the empire” for the 3 hour shift, from 1 to 4 pm. The Library always tries to have 2 volunteers covering the front desk. We are short one person on Wednesday afternoon and would like to fill this spot. Tasks primarily involve answering telephone calls, helping individuals who walk in, operating the cash register, periodicals and a variety of other interesting tasks. The volunteer will receive a two hour orientation session by Don Beuthel. Please consider volunteering for this important task. Let Don Beuthel or Sergio Lugo know of your interest at 303-759-9921 New Assistant Auction Manager For the past several years, the RMPL auctions have been handled almost entirely by David Weisberg. The volume of material we receive has grown substantially and as a result, the need for additional volunteers was seen and we now welcome William Crabbs, who will be assisting David with the auctions. The auctions are a major fund raiser for the library and have been growing in size and importance. Additional volunteers are still needed to help the regular managers. 2010 Party at White Fence Farm - a few of the special award winners last year. The RMPL wants to thank each and every volunteer at the library and to show our appreciation, you are all invited to the annual Volunteer Holiday Party scheduled for Friday, December 2, at the White Fence Farm in Lakewood. Dalene will be sending an announcement shortly to all volunteers. Scribblings Adds Additional Staff Scribblings requires the work and contributions of many RMPL members. Numerous authors submit articles, new book lists are accumulated every month, photos are taken, news of club meetings and programs are updated. Finally, it is all assembled and printed on our printer/copier machine. But before it goes into the mail, envelopes are addressed and postage applied, and the new Scribblings is stuffed inside and sealed. And then, one last step, someone has to take it all to the Post Office. Beginning with the January 2012 issue we are adding one more volunteer, an editorial assistant who will begin helping to edit, layout, proofread, and learn the operation of our printing machine. Also, training in the use of the library’s computers with our publishing software will be offered to any member with an interest. Contact Ron Hill at the RMPL or at hillwright@mac.com for more information. Page 10 11 November-December 2011
Letter Writing is a Lost Art by Jack Van Ens Ironic, isn’t it? We write more but communicate less. In the past decade, text messages have shot up while letters nose dived. Since 2000, text messages sent on cell phones are up a whopping 1,200,243%. The USPS mail volume has plummeted -19% during the last decade. Not only is message delivery changing, its content has shifted dramatically. Formerly, people took time to write by hand, using elegant cursive script. Neat penmanship counted. It showed respect towards the letter’s recipient. Nouns and verbs agreed. Writers crafted letters, choosing specific thoughtful words and phrases. Before electronic text messaging, letter writers penned notes they intentionally wrote for posterity. These authors possessed a sixth sense about history peering over their shoulders, preserving foibles and strengths letter writers exhibited. Personal messages added rich detail to the historical record. For instance, Martha Washington sometimes felt as if her husband practiced bigamy, married to her and the nation. During his second term of office from 1792-1796, Martha wrote a letter from the heart, divulging why she didn’t enthusiastically embrace her role as First Lady. She expressed a wistful longing for time away from public life that pressed upon her and the president. “With respect to myself,” Martha lamented, “I sometimes think the arrangement is not quite as it ought to have been; that I, who had much rather be at home, should occupy a place with which a great many younger and gayer women should be prodigiously pleased … I know too much of the vanity of human affairs to expect felicity from the splendid scenes of public life.” Martha wrote text and infused it with texture. We hear her heart heave. Although she’s not complaining about her official duties, Martha doesn’t embrace them enthusiastically. We learn more about her than words tell, skimming the surface in text messaging. Today, e-mails, Facebook and tweets replace letters. We use literary shortcuts to speedily text message. Literary elegance is sacrificed. Whole sentences are non-existent. Fat words are chopped into lean abbreviations. Missing are smooth transitions. Writing bounces with staccato beats. We write for immediate effect rather than deep meaning. Many text messages and e-mails exude a breathless quality, like a climber gasping for oxygen as he scales a tall peak. Time Magazine (June 20, 2011, p.56) interviewed historian David McCullough about the dearth of accomplished letter writers. “We don’t write letters on paper anymore,” declares Time in the McCullough interview. “How will this affect the study of history?” Scribblings “The loss of people writing - writing a composition, a letter or a report—is not just the loss for the record,” answers McCullough. “It’s the loss of the process of working your thoughts out on paper, of having an idea that you would never have had if you weren’t [writing]. And that’s a handicap. People [I research] were writing letters every day. That was calisthenics for the brain.” Do our brains change because phones and computers don’t require us to express what’s worth keeping? We text message facts. We often e-mail inconsequential stray words that lack coherence, substance and what formerly was called gravitas. That is, writing that’s important, lasting, and of noble resolve. Without letter writing, we are infected with a cancer of trivial words to express deeper meaning, trite expression, and lazy logic that causes brain drains. It’s like having a 7-foot, 150 pound center in the NBA. He gets out-muscled, out-rebounded, and pushed out from the basket. His slender frame can’t support his height. Similarly, text messages and e-mails tend to be pencil thin. They lack dexterity for discussing things of import. What’s the result? Historians who desire to trace our steps have little with which to work. A few slipshod e-mails. A fistful of text messages not worth keeping. Only ghostly imprints surface because a body of retrievable evidence isn’t preserved. What’s left to sort through? Letters written tucked in stamped envelopes are rare. Stamp collectors find it tough to find used current postage. We have retired mailed letters in the same way fountain pens and typewriters were rendered obsolete. The Postal Service carries advertising brochures and junk mail. First class letters are disappearing, replaced by tweeting, e-mailing, electronic billing and a flurry of text messaging. Is the Postal Service headed for a dead-letter box? If so, we shall be deprived of mental calisthenics that keep brains nimble, hearts empathetic and spirits engaged. With letter writing’s death, have we penned an epitaph to good grammar, and tributes in history when sound thinking and decision-making events were expressed on paper? (See related story, next page) November-December 2011 Page 11
Page 1 and 2: Ronald Hill, Editor Ellengail Beuth
Page 3 and 4: JOE CROSBY: Jack Willard took me do
Page 5 and 6: Scribblings FAKES Holy Cow, it’s
Page 7 and 8: Scribblings RMPL BOARD MEETING, SEP
Page 9: Scribblings PUZZLE PAGE We will try
Page 13 and 14: (Continued) BOOK REVIEW SHARED MOME
Page 15 and 16: (Continued) BOOK REVIEW SHARED MOME
Page 17 and 18: Numerous other instances of confisc
Page 19 and 20: NEW MEMBERS The library is pleased

Nov/Dec 2011 - Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library

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