My Typewriter

I keep forgetting to tell my sister that I still have a card she gave me 10 years ago when I quit my job to write. It has a black and white photo of an old typewriter on the cover. Inside she wrote, "May all your writing dreams come true. Love, Rosy"

I loved this card and kept it for a very long time. Finally it got put up and forgotten until I found it among the stuff from the attic at my dad's house. (I know that at some point one of you is going to ask, "How much stuff did you really have in that attic?")

I pulled it out and I've had it with my laptop since. When I'm not writing it stands upright on the keyboard, leaning against the screen as a reminder that I need to write. When I write it sits next to me on the table. I even pack it to go with me when I take my laptop to write away from home.

So Rosy if you read this, your card and words are still inspiring me 10 years later. They are a constant reminder of what is really important to me when it comes to my work.

I also have a copy of a photograph of an old fashioned typewriter by Tina Modotti hanging on my wall next to my other PC. Modotti was the one who supposedly introduced Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera. She was an Italian photographer who lived in Mexico City. (she's portrayed by Ashley Judd in the movie) She was also in love with a Cuban (?) writer and the photograph is of his typewriter.

I love photographs of old typewriters. To me they represent the love of writing. They remind me of writers like Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller who plugged away on their typewriters. Except they didn't do so one-handed while balancing a baby on one knee like I, and countless other mother writers have, and do.

My laptop is my modern day typewriter. They had their typewriters, I have my laptop. So it's fitting that the card sits on my laptop.