There are many things we use in our daily lives that we never even really think about. For instance, there's paper . . .

                                It’s Only Paper

Paper is one of the many things in life that we take for granted. In multiple forms, it surrounds us and makes our life easier. It is there from the beginning to the end.

When we are born, a birth certificate marks our entrance into the world . . . followed by an announcement in the local newspaper, complete with all the details. We grow bigger and enter school, and suddenly paper is all around us. There are report cards, art projects, spitballs and paper airplanes. There are notes sent home by the teacher, and one or two written excuses sent in by mom when we had stayed home with the flu.

Eventually, we earned a diploma and headed out into the world. At this time the paper in our lives took the form of ‘help wanted’ ads, job applications, resumes and cover letters. Yet, all was not work related. There were probably more than a few love letters in there somewhere, perhaps followed by a marriage license and wedding invitations. And of course, you needed a place to live, so you may well have signed a rental lease. Or perhaps a new home was in your future, so you obtained the proper permits and signed a loan application for that perfect little house, whose floor plans you’d been studying and revising for months. All on paper.

When you got ill, there were prescriptions, written instructions from the doctor, or maybe even a release form you needed to sign before going into surgery - followed by ‘get well’ cards and, of course, the unavoidable bills and insurance forms. As if that’s not unpleasant enough, paper can come in the forms of divorce decrees, court summons, traffic tickets or the dreaded job termination notice - as well as all the other bills we will pay through the course of our lives.

Paper can be a simple grocery list, a ‘honey-do’ list, or a goal you wanted to set down in writing. It can also carry the words that break or heal a heart. It can be the paper you sign at the veterinarian’s office, giving permission to end the life of a dear pet – and it’s the tissues you use during the long ride home. A piece of paper can declare war, or announce peace; it can send our troops off to a faraway land, or it can bring them home to waiting arms. It can outline and map entire cities, or the world. It can be a letter to a friend, or a tiny folded treasure on which you’ve written a very dear secret. In the end, it’s a death certificate . . . and a place someone jots down the eulogy you’ll never hear.

Paper has helped to shape and mold our lives. It brings us the news and keeps us informed. We hold it in our hands, for it is nearly weightless. Yet it is strong enough to change the world.