my loss

The loss of people writing-- writing a composition, a letter or a report-- is not just the loss for the record. It's the loss of the process of working your thoughts out on paper, of having an idea that you would never have had if you weren't [writing]. And that's a handicap. People [I research] were writing letters every day. That was calisthenics for the brain.

-- Historian David McCullough to Belinda Luscombe. Read more (or watch the interview) here.