All About Love

What would you type on a Smith Corona typewriter?

I saw something poignant on social media today that ironically made me think about life before social media.

Literati Bookstore is an independent book shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that was founded in 2013 by a couple who are book lovers.

Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI

They posted a thought-provoking video with these words:

When we first opened Literati Bookstore, we put out a typewriter anyone could use, had a blank piece of paper, and that's it.

No internet, no social media, no delete key.

And I was curious -- when forced with a blank page, what would people type? 

Nonsense? Mean, biting comments? Vitriolic attacks?

But what happened over the past 12 years has been amazing, most of the time.

More often than any other topic, people write about love.

Love gained, love lost, love missed, love yearned for.

Love for parents, love for kids, love for someone else, love for lost love.

Love wanted, love needed.

Typing out some lovely advice

And I learned something when we are left alone with our thoughts and just a blank page, we take away social media and followers and comments and the cruel cough in this megaphone that is the internet.

When we have a quiet moment in a bookstore to simply leave something anonymous and permanent about anything we want.

More times than not, we write about love, and while there is so much wrong in this world, in the end, after pouring through tens of thousands of anonymous notes, I truly believe we are more alike than we think.

💕