The barbarians are getting closer every second. They don’t leave until they get what they want; usually gold, but sometimes they take those left alive who would make decent slaves. My work is nearly complete. It must be hidden, kept safe. I regret to say that in my moment of panic I scratch out a line that may be deemed out of place next to the inspired illustrations of previous passages:
shit. my boss. talk to ya later :-/
“You’re certainly not texting up here, right? You have work to do, and there’s customers to keep an eye on…?” Damn, she’d seen me slip the cell phone into my pocket.
“Oh yea, of course. Just, uh, checking the time. Thought our clock looked a little off,” I stammer.
“I see. Well, perhaps I can get Cody to move those boxes, since you have things to do up here…?” It’s sometimes difficult to tell if she’s still talking to an underling like me or to herself, but she’s ending her sentences like a question so I feel like I have to justify my existence.
“Mmmmyea! There’s this catalog to go through and a bit of labeling…books to shelve…” She nods, stares blankly, mutters something about what she came up there for, and leaves. It hadn’t been the first time my state of lazy comfort had been raided by a marauding micro-manager, and it wouldn’t be the last. I lean against the counter and pray my friend Cody makes it out alive.
My boss had only caught me in the middle of making plans for the weekend, a fate much gentler than those of the tenth century Celtic monks who were victims of Viking attacks. Believing a raid to be a challenge to battle rather than stealing, the Vikings looted villages for food, precious metals, livestock, people, and killed whoever stood in their way. Peaceful settlements like the Abbey of Kells in Ireland never stood a chance. However, the monks were able to keep their greatest work from being plundered: an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament.
The Book of Kells is a work by generations of master calligraphers, and the ultimate reference for the winding art motifs we’ve come to know as Celtic knots and crosses. It’s Ireland’s greatest national treasure and has been kept at Trinity College in Dublin since 1661, just out of reach of drooling bibliophiles and historians. This vibrant example of language was the result of patience, skill and divine inspiration. If everyone today had the motivation of the monks who withstood beatings from merciless killers, what would our writing look like?
Conversations thumbed between cell phones these days could never match the beauty of an illuminated manuscript. Text messages get deleted to make room for more text messages; perhaps such a disposable nature suppresses the urge to make them as enduring as anything hand-written. The Book of Kells is written in Latin, a language considered to be “dead.” If languages can die, how long before the short-hand elegance I’ve learned only from years of instant messaging gets put down? I can’t possibly let a younger, more adorable lingo warm the hearts of writers in my lifetime, so I prefer to view each instantaneous transmission as a new opportunity to link the vernacular of my generation with the careful passion of someone who has imported pigments from far off lands to mix into a brilliant ink.
The clever faces built from the available symbols on a keyboard—known as emoticons or smileys—retain a level of punctuation that, when understood, can convey a lot. Despite being knocked over onto their side, smileys offer facial expression where it normally isn’t seen.
Hey! Whats up? :)
The plain smile shows that I’m genuinely interested in how a person’s day was, even if what I really want is to get on their good side so I can ask them to drive somewhere.
Wow thats awesome! :D
I’ll use the grin if, and only if, I think the person is going to share any of their awesome with me.
:(
That’s sad; I have been upset. Maybe they’re keeping that awesome all to their self.
:-*
Kisses go to the one I love. End of story.
;-)
However, I am generous with my winks….
:P
and the sarcastic sticking out of the tongue.
Emoticons illuminate the tiny backlit screens that glow against our faces in shadowy corners. They articulate feeling in a way that the limited field of text messaging can’t, and since texting has become such a popular way of communicating, we need all the varied methods of expression we can get. The monks at the Abby of Kells knew the power of illustration, knew that it could lift up the word of God so that even those who could not read could be aware of the Almighty. Plus, it states in the Bible that God made humans in his likeness; why squint to make out the face of Jesus in rock formations and grilled cheese sandwiches when it can easily be constructed from an assortment of punctuation marks?
Texting has a chokehold on our culture. If people really are losing the ability to socialize face-to-face, we can at least still write meaningful things to each other.
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