The Written Word

As this blog approaches it's 10th anniversary, I'd like to think I've become more aware and astute, while hopefully having become more articulate.  With digital history and revision, as well as the continuing effort to discount various versions of Scripture, the "information" highway and the highway to hell, may be one in the same.  Now, let me put this into context, please.  Through my years on the internet, I've watched much of history be retold, and along with that, I've watched much of the printed news go by the wayside.  Printed newspapers are becoming almost scarce.  The printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica hit the dustbins of history in 2012.  Many news magazines are only available in digital form.

Sadly, the rag mags continue to be printed, and it seems at the grocery store check out, the number of celebrity magazines may have actually increased.  With cable and reality TV, not to mention computers, iphones, etc. much of our time is now spent staring at screens.  My reading posture has changed dramatically since I began using the internet in 2001.  There is something about the digital interactivity that has changed my brain.  I was still an avid bed and sofa reader, when I had my word processor.  Now, I have to be sitting at a table or set myself up a reading station to ingest my paper reading material, properly.  Others have made similar comments regarding their reading comprehension between digital and paper sources.

I still like my books, but I've developed what I consider to be a real need to have books.  I feel it is almost a duty to maintain information in printed form.  As the world is changing and a new order is coming into place, we already know the reality for each generation changes.  My grandparents grew up in homes that had a Bible, books and a radio.  My parents grew up in homes that had their own Bibles, books, a radio, a telephone, and they remember when the television was added.  I grew up with all of that, plus a home stereo, my own Bible, but our home had more than one translation of the Bible.  Bible understanding wasn't big, but Bible ownership was paramount!

The main advancement of technology that I recall, in my youth, was the addition of more than one telephone in the house.  I still remember the various sets of book collections and encyclopedias throughout the house.  There were two or three sets that had come from the grocery store, one book at a time.  One set in my room, one in my sister's, and I think the old set of "all about the states" had found it's way to the basement bookshelves.   The bookcase in the formal living room held the valuable books.  That bookcase held the set of Childcraft books and The World Book Encyclopedia, with annuals.

My kids grew up with everything I had, but the emphasis on the Bible was sadly, less.  We had encyclopedias and my girls were avid readers, but the technology was increasing.  There were push button phones in every room, their own stereos in their rooms, more than one television in the house, and a microwave.  It seems as technology has increased, true lasting knowledge is decreasing.  

My parents are still young, relatively speaking, but they are "getting their affairs in order."  When my mom called to discuss this fact, she asked me what I wanted.  As I thought of the rooms filled with furniture and stuff, and I do mean filled, all I mentioned was the set of encyclopedias.  As history is recorded and information exchanged digitally, it is my privilege and my duty to maintain the written word for the next generation.  As we revise history and fail to learn from it, we are doomed to repeat it.

 So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.  Chronicles of Holy Scripture