Occasionally, I plan to re-post a former blog entry posted elsewhere.  This entry is one under the category, VINTAGE POST!

The mention of an archaic word duo like “typing class” ought to give my approximate age away!

A class like that is something of an academic dinosaur compared to the modern day equivalent of “keyboarding” or “computer skills”.   Most kids these days will acquire basic typing skills by the time they are five as the tap their A-B-C’s into a variety of electronic input devices!

I distinctly recall typing class in the early 1970’s in my sophomore year at Serra High School outside of Pittsburgh.  The desks and chairs of the classroom were aligned in some sort of matrix fashion, with large grey typewriters at each station.   I remember sitting next to my friend, Tommy, who was from my hometown and who also attended elementary school with me.

The only value typing class offered was a bridge to lunch, recess, or the end of the day.  Nothing more, nothing less!

The echoes of my now silent thoughts still make me laugh when I recount the story or conjure up the memory.

Some of those silent thoughts were:

• Why I am in this class?”
• ”What practical purpose can typing have for me?”
• “Isn’t typing something that I could get my future secretary to do?”

 These questions were a constant reminder to me of the giant waste of time I thought typing class was and always would be!

As I asked the questions, aloud or silently, the heavens must have burst forth with laughter.  Some of us might be inclined to picture God “up there” on His throne.  If you do, He most likely was “up there” almost wetting His celestial pants at the thought of me asking the question:

“Why do I need to be in typing class?”

I could almost hear His response, “If you (ha, ha, ha) only knew!” The angels most likely enjoyed it as well, as they took a break from their harp playing!

The only practical purpose that two mischievous high schools kids could find in typing class was pencil hockey.  That’s right, pencil hockey!

Pencil hockey passed the time faster than pressing A-S-D-F and J-K-L-; repeatedly as our fingers found their way along the keyboard signaled by the ongoing command of the teacher.

The sides of each typewriter had a small slot that adjoined the desk to form the perfect goal crease for any guy aspiring to play pencil hockey in typing class.

Other than serving our creative game interests, typing class was a bore.  It would never – I repeat never be utilized again in my day to day life.

Yikes, I was wrong about that one!

 Charles Swindoll said, “Attitude is everything”.

When God tells us that He is the “Alpha and Omega”, the “Beginning and End” There’s a good reason for Him declaring who He is.

He sees all of the in between stuff and how He plans to put it to use.  The seemingly mundane in our lives is simply preparation work for the bigger picture that will unfold.

Next to the proverbial benefits of “reading, writing, and arithmetic” typing literally has become an extension of my fingers and the most functional thing I do in a given day.

In college, those pre-personal computer days left me ripping out page after page of errant papers from my typewriter.  I graduated too early to walk down typing’s Easy Street, the PC!

From the early 1980’s onward, PC’s were increasingly available – perhaps as a shared workstation device to start out.  Now PC’s are as common as tape dispensers and staplers in the work setting and most certainly at home.  You cannot function without one!

Who would have dared to dream (other than the creators of the Jetsons) phones in which typing skills would be used?  Or a thing called an IPad?

I have literally authored or replied to thousands upon thousands of emails.  Only God knows the millions of character strokes I have entered into a keyboard since those far away days of typing class.

Who would have thought that typing class would have become so integral to me?

Da….do I really have to go there?

Fast forward to now.  I use typing daily at my job.  I have an IPhone.  I am blogging.  I have stated a book is in the making and a goal.

More typing skills needed.  I have come to think of typing class as cosmic Preparation H – My God in heaven knew the road ahead!

Over forty years ago I could not have even imagined ever thinking this -let alone saying it:

“Thank you, Lord, for typing class!”

What sort of situation or experience do you recall that made absolutely no sense to you at all, but hindsight has more than validated?