Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Colon, Left Parenthsis

I know that you have been waiting for a new merit badge. It feels good to have two badges on that sash, doesn't it? Well here is the third. It's the Correspondence badge. You may have recently read articles in the newspaper on cursive writing. It would be on the way out if some people had their way for the see it as archaic in this digital age. Combine this with keyboard correspondence we are addicted to and we are truly heading the wrong way. There was an article in our paper about a local school that is experimenting with a no textbook biology class. The book that I mentioned in yesterday's blog, Why Johnny Can't Preach by T. David Gordon, had an excellent chapter on the correlation between reading classic literature and the ability to express yourself. He even recommends to his students that if they want to go to seminary, the best preparation for it would be an English literature major. The Bible has been likened to an anvil that has worn out many hammers, and it also has been noted that if every Bible in the world were to be banned, it could be reconstructed from quotes in the books from any library. Right now I am rereading a biography on Jonathon Edwards. His letters and journal entries are the most important items in revealing himself to us. I mentioned before how John Kennedy's letters to his father give tremendous insight into his development, yet we are headed to an age where letters will be almost non-existent. From time to time, we hear that someone's emails are being requested, usually in a legal setting. This is what we have come to. The proposed budgets in Pennsylvania, now being fought over, will decimate libraries. They fail to see that libraries are jewels in our society. The trend militates against reading, writing and libraries. So, for the merit badge, you are required to write three letters, in cursive writing, to anyone.


Office setting:
Jenna: Sabrina, look what came in the mail. Do you know what it is?
Sabrina: I think that it's a letter.
Jenna: A letter? There's ink all over the page!
Sabrina: That's writing. My grandfather used to send me money with a letter on my birthdays.
Jenna: What does it say?
Sabrina: Let's see..."Here is my $30 payment for the month of September."
Jenna: Wow! Where did you learn how to do that?
Sabrina: I was home-schooled. I can even add without a calculator.
Jenna: What's this, an autograph?
Sabrina: No, they just signed their name. You sign your name on a credit purchase don't you?
Jenna: Yeah, but I always thought it was some kind of pass code.
Jenna's cell phone ringtone is heard.
Jenna: Sabrina, Brady just sent me a text and proposed! She types something in return.
Sabrina: What did you say?
Jenna: Colon, right parenthesis


If you want to put a red border around that Correspondence merit badge, write those letters to your legislators and request that they do not sacrifice our children's learning, enjoyment and enrichment through reading by cutting the library budgets!

Please see my July 16th blog for how I came across the idea for merit badge blogs.