Often my job allows me to run around and do cool things but sometimes I have to hunker down, roll up my sleeves, and bury myself in administrative and financial paperwork. It doesn't sound fun but there are things about it that I find immensely pleasing. For example, I particularly enjoy the act of stamping the word "COPY" on my own file copies of financial reports. I know how sad that sounds. I made a point of not smiling too wide while I did some stamping recently because I feared my intern would notice and think I was a real nut job. (She probably thinks that anyway.) The thing is, I grew up with some similar rubber stamps and the act of using them is as nostalgic for me as I imagine making fluffernutter sandwiches is for some folks. As a kid, I used to pull stamps out of my parents' desk drawer and use them to officialize my own "paper work" and "business" with words like "TAXES" and "FAXED." I'm sure my parents really appreciated all the rubber stamp art I left on top of their bills and other properly important business.
Paperwork, like typewriters, dot matrix printers, rotary phones, AOL, and pencils, is something we'll probably have trouble explaining to our children. Maybe we won't even bother trying. I'm all for new technology, but when paperwork and pencils truly disappear, I will miss the tactile satisfaction of actually doing things with my hands while I'm at a desk. God, I hope I'll at least still get to have desk.
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