XENITH

Ever since our feet first touched the ground, when our ancestors drifted from the trees to the African planes, humans have had the urge to express themselves, and to record their thoughts for posterity.  From the Mesoamerican Incan knotted rope system, to the less sophisticated cave man drawing on cave walls in France, ancient people began their journals.

Through its progression, the journal has transcended many forms, from the aforementioned ancient methods to leather bound books to the more recent digital age and our blogs. 

Nowadays, in the tangible world of ingratiating writing, we have many options.  Trendy mole-skins, old composition notebooks, spiral bound class room paraphernalia, expensively ornate journals line the shelves of countless stores, begging us to ink their pages.

Myself, I’ve always wished to own a leather bound journal, filled with old, yellowed paper made of flax or hemp.  To me, a leather journal seems more personal, something less expendable.  The textures and smells it holds capture our essence just as much as the words we would write inside of it. 

Though, in the day of electronic, public ego masturbation, tangible receptacles of thought become more and more dated.  Where once the pen and paper was king, now rules the keyboard and the screen.  Traded in for ease and vast audiences, the leather-bound journal sits dejected with few friends to console it with their confidence.