A view of Vancouver from Grouse Mountain\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For some reason, I found myself thinking today about alphabetic writing, which is, arguably, one of the greatest inventions or discoveries or gifts in the history of humanity.<\/p>\n
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Think about it:\u00a0 With just a few simple symbols \u2014 twenty-six in English \u2014 a virtual infinity of thoughts can be expressed, and not only expressed but conveyed across time and space.\u00a0 (I\u2019m not thinking specifically here of the Roman letters used by English and many other languages.\u00a0 The Cyrillic alphabet or Hebrew or Arabic characters would serve my point just as well.)\u00a0 They are, in combination, astoundingly versatile and adaptable.\u00a0 They can be used to express love, codify laws, settle disputes, argue subtle points, address great problems, make jokes, record emotions, remember events, express deep thoughts, share experiences, and \u2014 in my case, at least \u2014 lie, deceive, abuse, manipulate, cheat, and beguile.<\/p>\n
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The name of the person or persons who first invented (or discovered or was given) writing is, perhaps ironically, not preserved in the historical record.\u00a0 But we owe him or her an incalculable debt that we can never repay.\u00a0 Similarly, we cannot repay the person who (it seems) moved us beyond logographic and pictographic writing systems to the far more adaptable and far more accessible idea of alphabet writing.\u00a0 Whenever you\u2019re feeling a need to feel gratitude, reflect on the gift of the alphabet.<\/p>\n
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And, frankly, those of us who can handle Roman letters \u2014 I\u2019m guessing that at least a significant subset of the readers of this blog have that skill \u2014 have also received a blessing.<\/p>\n
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Consider this:\u00a0 If you were to write a letter \u2014 some of you may perhaps recall seeing quaint artifacts called \u201cletters\u201d \u2014 to someone in Russia or in China or in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan or Israel, you could address it to your intended recipient in Roman letters and be confident that it would very likely reach its destination.\u00a0 (Despite extensive experience, for simplicity of argument I\u2019m leaving out of consideration the corruption and incompetence of some postal institutions in some countries.)\u00a0 Now try reversing the situation.\u00a0 Write a letter to somebody in the United States or Canada or Mexico or Hungary or South Africa or Germany or Australia or Brazil or France or New Zealand.\u00a0 Write the intended address in Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, or even Russian.\u00a0 If I were you in such a case, I would not be confident about the prospects for my letter\u2019s safe arrival.\u00a0 Be grateful for the considerable gift that you\u2019ve been given.<\/p>\n
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Posted from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 For some reason, I found myself thinking today about alphabetic writing, which is, arguably, one of the greatest inventions or discoveries or gifts in the history of humanity. \u00a0 Think about it:\u00a0 With just a few simple symbols \u2014 twenty-six in English \u2014 a virtual infinity of thoughts can be expressed, and not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29851,3397,18809,29845,4369,9454,29848],"class_list":["post-95830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cyrillic","tag-language","tag-letter","tag-letters","tag-miracle","tag-roman","tag-script"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>