There’s nothing like a holding a grandchild on one’s lap sharing, laughing and smiling while reading aloud his or her favorite book, unless it’s thumbing through the old family photo album watching the faces in the photos as they age and mature, smile after smile, year after year.

Can a price be put on following a family recipe from a worn church cookbook or reading a keepsake card or letter from someone who has long passed? A Bible, with scriptures underscored and notes in the sideline, is a treasure for the next generation!

Once taken for granted such pieces of paper, print and all things written seem to be disappearing from the ‘lifescapes’ of what was once considered valuable. Today technology has moved in and moved over the once wonderful world of all things printed and written and the element of human connections, experiences and interactions that came along with them.

With the advent of the cellphone, humanity has completely changed the way it records, communicates, expresses, documents, lives and engages in life. One small hand-held device has obliterated the need for a host of others including cameras, time pieces such as wristwatches and clocks, tape recorders, stereos, landline phones, photo albums, diaries, recipe books, printed matter and an endless list of once essential methods, inventions and machines. It can be described as both amazing and disturbing, liberating and binding and interconnecting and ostracizing.

Man’s attempts at preserving and recording major life events date back to early civilizations where paper and print were a concept that had not yet been imagined. People took to capturing and keeping major life events and triumphs by scratching, drawing or painting on cave walls, the sides of cliffs and other rock formations which allowed permanency or propelled simply through oral history. Archaeologists and scientists revel in newly discovered texts and attempts of such primitive efforts. The findings are studied, explored and preserved for generations to visit and see.

Then paper and pen came along and catapulted the human race into writing down their history, with handwritten bibles, books, other renderings, ledgers and drawings of the human face and everyday life in greater detail. As every student of history knows, the printing press pushed its way into the human experience. People could publish and read newspapers, authors wrote and printed books for knowledge and for recreation, family recipes were captured on paper and bound in recipe books, family ancestry could be recorded and preserved, cameras captured everyday faces in printed photographs, photo albums were created to house those photographs, and on and on. The world became more accessible, and knowledge became more attainable for the common working man and woman – not just the academically elite.

For decades and generations, the world of paper and print excelled. Libraries were built, knowledge became contained and shared, and people relished the possibilities of paper and print. Schools and education were built on the possibility of printed words and books and learning to capture one’s thoughts and life in a journal, a diary or a multitude of other written correspondence.

Then came the advancement of technology – initially large and cumbersome and only available to the scientific world. That is, until the powers that be found means and methods to decrease the entire world of knowledge into computers small and affordable enough that anyone and everyone could purchase and own. Now, regardless of which corner of the earth one lives on – even those places without running water and electricity – he or she can link with anyone, anywhere via cellphones. No doubt, technology has stretched the world to new heights and has made it easier and more accessible in countless ways!

But sometimes paper and print are still very desirable and wonderful. A screen cannot replace the feel and smell of newly printed paper. The rustle of a turned page and the anticipation of what lies on the next page isn’t the same on a screen as it is in a book. The ink smudges left on fingers from a newly printed newspaper are missing when the only news one gets is from a social media site. The gloss of a glamorous shiny magazine page that stays put when the page is turned down and revisited is irreplaceable. Reading to a child from a book with colorful illustrations while he or she sits close by or curled up in one’s lap somehow trumps hitting the buttons on the newest video game on a lap sized screen. Printed pictures continue to merit a place in the human experience, both on the wall and in a photo album, not to mention a parent’s or grandparent’s wallet or billfold.

Handwritten letters and postcards scribed and sent by loved ones in their unique individual handwriting can be tucked away safely to be reread again and again; and when that loved one is gone, the paper, the letter and the individual’s unique script remain behind as a precious link to him or her.

Recipes on Pinterest are great but can’t touch the stained pages of church and family recipe books that are handed down containing mama’s or grandma’s recipe for cornbread dressing or pecan pie! The Bible that is written in, underlined, and tearstained cannot be matched by the one on a laptop or iPad. Oh, the glory of paper, print and script!

The case for paper, print and all such things is this: while advancing technology transports the human experience into places and experiences that have never before been realized, there are other experiences that it cannot and never will be capable of replacing.

Humanity will continue boldly going where no man or woman has ever gone before, but at the same time the hand and heart longs for something to hold. Enjoying the evolving inventions and milestones that are changing at the speed of light will continue but keep the pictures of your kiddos on the wall, your children engaged in conversations, a book in your hand and snapshots in an album that you can reach out and touch anytime you want, even when the internet is down.

The wonderful world of print and paper and all things written continues to spin and has a well-established place in our lives and hopefully in those who follow.