I'm gonna sit write down and write myself

My handwriting is horrible.  My father was quite a proficient amateur calligrapher, and my mother won prizes in high school for her Palmer Method handwriting, and anything I write tends to look like I was trying to make an old BIC pen write a few more words. 

It doesn't help that I am lefthanded, and my fellow lefties know the agony of "math hand." That's where you've done a whole page of arithmetic with pencil on paper and the heel of your hand looks like a graphite pit with all the pencil smudges over it. 

However, I'm certain that lots of lefthanded writers put out page after page of perfectly legible work, whereas I...don't.

But there is an effort afoot (or at hand) to mark National Handwriting Day every year on January 23, which just happens to be the birthday of John Hancock, first  signer of our Declaration of Independence.  And, according to legend, he signed it in very large letters so “the fat old King could read it without his spectacles."

Pretty impressive, especially when you remember Hancock was using a quill pen made from some poor goose's feather, and not a BIC.

We didn't even know there is such a group, but The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association is there to promote good penmanship by talking about the history and the influence of it. They feel the pressure of so many of us pounding out notes on a QWERTY keyboard, but then again, lousy typing is still better than lousy penmanship. They started Handwriting Day in 1977 to put a fine point on it, if you will.

And if they really want to promote good handwriting, should they not be sending all of us a handwritten letter, or at least a postcard?

And while I will admit that a nice handwritten-in-cursive letter or thank-you note makes a fine appearance, so many of us would be sending letters and notes that the recipients couldn't read.  What could be more embarrassing that getting a phone call to ask, "What does it say in this letter? That you 'love me forever' or you're 'moving to Rochester'?"