With the end of the year, it has taken me to think about the enduring things that do not change no matter how much time passes. They are not intangible things, but practical things, like the arrangement of letters on a keyboard. The qwert on the left in front of the poiuy on the right fascinates me and I’m one of those who write with almost all fingers (it must be of some use that my mother forced me to study typing), even without look at the keyboard, skill gained after years and locks.
First in a turquoise Olivetti Lettera 42 typewriter, which I still have; then on an electric IBM, in which the letters were engraved on a ball that hammered the ink ribbon and almost pierced the paper, and then on to the bulky computers to the laptops as light as an advertising brochure and, of course, on mobile phones. Change the machine, the letters, not only on physical keyboards, but they also appear on the screens, but the arrangement does not change, you always find them in the same place, the a next to the s , even that b next to the v so that, from time to time, you seem uneducated. Isn’t it wonderful? Keep order and order will keep you, as my father used to say.
The Qwerty keyboard was designed and patented by Christopher Sholes – a journalist he had to be – in 1868 and his invention still lives on like so many others, much simpler but also useful, such as the safety pin that held diapers and now prevents run over a neckline or those clothespins, wooden, of course, that no gale will make them jump off the clothesline. Things that don’t change no matter how many centuries pass; utensils that have accompanied several generations without, as is the case with crockery or cutlery, being viciously colonized by design and fashion, although there is nothing like a round plate, it doesn’t matter if it’s deep, flat or of dessert
With the end of 2023 and the change to 2024, it is appropriate to remember all the things, the objects and even the people who accompany us, who never age, who remain true to their form and substance.