"Use it or lose it..." is TRUE

I just sat down to write a few Christmas cards.  My normally parochial school, Palmer penmanship hand writing is now coming out like chicken scratchings.  What happened?  Okay, so I have a little arthritis in my thumb - but no big deal.  What is going on here? 

Here's the analysis:

• We pay all our bills electronically - don't write checks
• Every purchase is MasterCard - nobody checks signature, much less penmanship
• Birthday, sympathy, thank you notes are sporadic, not clustered
• My last writing workshop was in July - free writing, stream of consciousness lasts less than 30 minutes
• I write all my short stories on the computer
• I communicate with my kids and grandkids on Facebook or by text
• OMG - I have become one of them

I guess I'll survive my last few years without beautiful cursive writing, but will I feel good about it?  I was proud that my mom and my aunts and I all had that great handwriting - so legible, so correct, so rhythmic. What shall I do?  Sit in the library, at the pool or in front of the TV practicing Palmer penmanship - or just stop sending real  Christmas cards and sending the fake Facebook ones or an E-Mail?  No - I'll keep sending the written kind so you can sit back and say - "my, Lynn is really failing - just look at her penmanship."  It will make you feel better and it won't bother me at all.

In the meantime - for those of us who learned to communicate in real words and sentences, let's think about our grandkids who may have never had to do that.   All you moms and dads - I'd love to know.

• Are your kids learning cursive?
• Do you make them write stuff once in a while ( like thank you notes)
• Do the colleges they apply to require written essays ( not typed?)
• Do employers ask for writing samples ( as I did )
• If the internet goes kaboom - will they be able to talk to their friends and family
• Am I making too much of nothing?

I'll be okay - will they?

I really would appreciate your insight.  Now I'm going to go check all my other body parts that I haven't used lately - I think I may be on to something.