Hard currency

It occurred to me this week that this technological age of ours can sometimes take the fun out of things. Yes it's easier to keep in touch with people, but in the same way that checking your inbox is never as exciting as hearing the letterbox rattle and running downstairs to see whose writing is on the tantalising envelope, being paid electronically isn't as satisfying as having someone hand over the cash, or even a cheque. I remember my older sister coming home with her wages in a brown envelope, counting it carefully to check it was all there. Now I get paid every month by electronic transfer, often forgetting it's payday at all, and here I am with my first payment for publication and it's just a shuffling of figures on a screen somewhere. I know it's easier and more efficient this way, and being (I hope) pretty green I like the fact that no aeroplane was required and no piece of paper was used to get my payment to me, but it's disappointingly intangible. I seem to recall reading at some point about an author (Stephen King?) who didn't bank their first paycheque from writing, they framed it. Nice idea, I always thought, or at least have a photo holding it, like they do when someone wins the pools, but you can't do that with a paypal credit. Maybe I could get a digital photo of myself pretending to hold a piece of paper, and add the screen-shot of the paypal transaction. Of course I wouldn't print it out and frame it - that would just be wasting paper.