P52, Somewhat: Week 1, "New"

It's Week 1 of P52.  If you don't know what that means, click here to open a new window with the first post in this series, and check it out!

The topic for this weeks P52 photo was "new."  Obviously, this topic was chosen specifically for this time of year.  It's a new year.  We just passed Christmas, during which many people got lots of new things.  January is a time for beginnings to many people, so "new" made perfect sense as a photo prompt.

With all the technology that is available today, the concept of writing has taken on a new connotation for many people.  You can sit down at a computer or pick up an iPad or smart phone and compose any document or blog or status update you with with a simple click of a few buttons.  But for someone who truly loves to write, there is still nothing that gives that same sensation as sitting down to write, using a brand new pen on blank paper.

A piece of blank paper has very nearly infinite potential.  Paper can be filled with any words you choose, and can become a love story or an adventure or a heartbreaking tale of sorrow.  The only limits placed upon a blank sheet of paper are its corporeal dimensions and the writer's own vocabulary.

In a time when technology has replaced the need for legible penmanship, in many peoples' opinions, the love of turning a simple sheet of blank paper into a work of living, emotional art is a rarity.  I have this love.  I often write drafts of blog posts on paper before the words ever make it into the pixels of my laptop's screen.  I have notebooks and folders and binders filled with things I have written, some over a decade old and others written as recently as yesterday.

It's the promise of creation that draws me to the paper and pen.  The lure of "new."  The opportunity of the yet-unwritten story.

Here is what the idea of "new" means to me:

"Yet-Unwritten Story" — photographed on Jan. 5, 2012 by Sarah Getz for P52 Photo-A-Week challenge