Sometimes the Old Way is Better

Our family went to Fulton for church on Sunday where my husband was assigned to speak.   I learned something important from the woman who gave a talk before him.  She wasn't old, but she said she's still not used to using the computer.  "So I used the old-fashioned cut and paste method."  She held up her talk to show the congregation.  It was clearly cut and pasted together.  We all chuckled, but I appreciated the reminder that the method works.

I've been struggling with wanting to do my latest assignment for my writing class.  I was supposed to read a bunch of essays written by the French author Montaigne and then choose quotes that I like and respond to them.  I ended up with ten typed, single-spaced pages of mostly quotes and some commentary.  I like his honesty and humor.  I'm only supposed to have three to six double-spaced pages.  It's all supposed to be unified and make sense.  I was overwhelmed.  Montaigne uses archaic, descriptive words and tangled sentences.  It's almost like reading Shakespeare.  He's smart, witty, and eloquent.  I didn't know where to begin. 

Then I remembered cutting and pasting.  I decided to print out my pages, hand write more thoughts on them, and otherwise try to decode the quotes I selected.  I crossed out things that didn't fit.  Then I cut and pasted what was left and what was beginning to make sense.  Yay! 

I'm nowhere near done, but I have a beginning.  I can see the light at the end of the assignment.  There's something about seeing all the papers at once, about actually writing on paper, about literally cutting and pasting, that works.