Dammit, I’m going back to the pencil. That dinosauric instrument. I’ve had it with pens.
For those of you who read this column regularly, you may remember my rant about cheap pens a few years back. I went off on how quickly the ink goes dry. You’re signing a check or some other important document and halfway through your signature the ink disappears.
You go offline and scribble on another sheet of paper to try and get it functioning again. Sometimes, if you circle and circle and circle on the paper, you’ll get another dribble of ink and you think you’ve conquered the problem, only for the pen to cease functioning once you apply it to the real task at hand rather than on the warmup paper.
Pisses me off. In essence, that was the column – railing against the pen manufacturers for their cheapness.
Going back to using a pencil shows my personal growth. Rather than complaining, I’m choosing the solution. Screw the pen. Give me a pencil.
I already feel slightly less agitated as I write down items with a pencil for our grocery list. Or, jot notes for my next upcoming column. I don’t lose any thoughts in mid-sentence as the ink trails off. Instead, the pencil allows me to put the idea down, write a couple of paragraphs, capture the theme, and give me a close, all while nostalgically making me think of being a child again, when the pencil was the tool of choice before Bic took over.
If I’m writing asparagus, paper towels, apples, bananas, yogurt and cerea….. down on the grocery list, I don’t have to worry about the pencil going dry on the “l” of cereal. If, for some reason, the lead is shrinking, just pull out the other trusty dinosauric instrument – the pencil sharpener. Hum a tune. Sharpen that puppy up. Oh yeah, back to writing.
You have to wonder why we went away from the pencil. Did the pen manufacturers put out some conspiracy theory that pencils were dangerous or made you stupid and slow? Who knows?
For some reason, the pen became ubiquitous. It was THE instrument.
I remember our dad ALWAYS used a pencil. Not that he wouldn’t use a pen, just that he seemed to prefer the pencil. I can still envision various notes he wrote on yellow pads.
The pencil also allows you to erase, which is an additional advantage to going back in time. Embrace the eraser. It allows you to get rid of your mistakes. Might be a slogan in there somewhere.
I’ve found an odd contentment lately using the pencil. Knowing that it WORKS. It’s not going to fail me. That gives me a sense of stability. I don’t care when it’s sharper, the tip might break, or the words are written more finely. Just keep writing and the tip will dull and the words get easier to read.
Somehow the pencil reminds me of our bodies. You use it regularly, and it remains reliable. Use it a lot, and it wears down a bit. But, if you sharpen it up, keep it in shape, it serves you nicely day after day until it wears down to a tiny nub. That’s when you know it’s had a good life and served well.
For those of you who read this column regularly, you may remember my rant about cheap pens a few years back. I went off on how quickly the ink goes dry. You’re signing a check or some other important document and halfway through your signature the ink disappears.
You go offline and scribble on another sheet of paper to try and get it functioning again. Sometimes, if you circle and circle and circle on the paper, you’ll get another dribble of ink and you think you’ve conquered the problem, only for the pen to cease functioning once you apply it to the real task at hand rather than on the warmup paper.
Pisses me off. In essence, that was the column – railing against the pen manufacturers for their cheapness.
Going back to using a pencil shows my personal growth. Rather than complaining, I’m choosing the solution. Screw the pen. Give me a pencil.
I already feel slightly less agitated as I write down items with a pencil for our grocery list. Or, jot notes for my next upcoming column. I don’t lose any thoughts in mid-sentence as the ink trails off. Instead, the pencil allows me to put the idea down, write a couple of paragraphs, capture the theme, and give me a close, all while nostalgically making me think of being a child again, when the pencil was the tool of choice before Bic took over.
If I’m writing asparagus, paper towels, apples, bananas, yogurt and cerea….. down on the grocery list, I don’t have to worry about the pencil going dry on the “l” of cereal. If, for some reason, the lead is shrinking, just pull out the other trusty dinosauric instrument – the pencil sharpener. Hum a tune. Sharpen that puppy up. Oh yeah, back to writing.
You have to wonder why we went away from the pencil. Did the pen manufacturers put out some conspiracy theory that pencils were dangerous or made you stupid and slow? Who knows?
For some reason, the pen became ubiquitous. It was THE instrument.
I remember our dad ALWAYS used a pencil. Not that he wouldn’t use a pen, just that he seemed to prefer the pencil. I can still envision various notes he wrote on yellow pads.
The pencil also allows you to erase, which is an additional advantage to going back in time. Embrace the eraser. It allows you to get rid of your mistakes. Might be a slogan in there somewhere.
I’ve found an odd contentment lately using the pencil. Knowing that it WORKS. It’s not going to fail me. That gives me a sense of stability. I don’t care when it’s sharper, the tip might break, or the words are written more finely. Just keep writing and the tip will dull and the words get easier to read.
Somehow the pencil reminds me of our bodies. You use it regularly, and it remains reliable. Use it a lot, and it wears down a bit. But, if you sharpen it up, keep it in shape, it serves you nicely day after day until it wears down to a tiny nub. That’s when you know it’s had a good life and served well.