My dear friend Mark has told me countless time that true "environmentalists" use computers for writing because it saves paper.
There is some legitimate and expert accounting that could be done to measure the impact of writing with a pencil and paper versus writing with a computer. A life-cycle analysis of the raw materials needed and pollution emitted from the manufacture, transport and end-of-life processing for the tools of the trade: laptops, pencil leads, the paper itself, and the energy needed to run computers, factories for making computers, paper, pencils and lead, and recycling systems.
This is not such an accounting of the costs and benefits (and externalities) of keyboarding vs. longhand writing. This is about feeling grounded and breaking a task (or joy) down to the basic elements of written communication.
In invite you to pick up a pencil. (Mark, please just entertain me here.)
[For full disclosure, and to be kind to the earth, I am writing this on 100% recycled paper and I am reusing paper that has something printed on the other side that I no longer need].
Your pencil was designed, through a deliberative process over centuries, to write well and feel comfortable in your hand. If you are accustomed to keyboarding, extended writing may feel tiresome. If it causes your hand to cramp, you are holding your pencil too tight. Relax.
Step away from your computer and your desk. Grab a clipboard or a large book for a writing surface. Lean back against a mossy hill and enjoy the relaxed posuture that is impossible sitting at a desk.
The tools of writing are now conforming to your body. Your mind can now disconnect from the rules of grammar and spelling that impeded the flow of thoughts on most computer typing interfaces. You can always clean it up anyway on a second pass or during transcription to a computer.
Before you know it, you may prefer this too much to turn to the keyboard first.
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