writing Archives %- – Rock The Wrinkle

Pencil, anyone?

I confess. I’m a boomer and I love pencils.

I love how they feel in my hand. I love how the aroma of the lead (which is actually graphite). I love being able to erase and start over any time I choose.

Pencils are friendly. Casual. Easygoing. If a pencil was a car, it would be an old Chevy station wagon. Unassuming, yet practical. Modest, yet hard-working.

Johnny Carson used to play with pencils on The Tonight Show that had an eraser on both ends. Henry David Thoreau manufactured pencils. John Steinbeck is said to have started each day with 24 newly sharpened pencils.

We pencil lovers are in the minority these days, at least it feels that way in business meetings. Everyone pulls out their fancy pens and writes silently, while we purists write, erase, and make noise. Somehow, it’s looked down upon, as though you’re not quite as sophisticated as the guy next to you (who is actually writing a note to himself to remember to tape the game later).

It’s really not fair, especially if you are a writer by profession. God knows no one knows more about how things can change than a writer. Maybe it’s our own edits, but usually it’s someone else’s, welcome or not. So we understand the lack of permanence.

Frankly it makes me nervous to write down anything with a pen and ink…it’s so final. So formal. So lacking in imagination.

Pencils have a cooler history than pens. Some say a man in Napoleon’s army is said to have invited the first pencil, though I suspect it was long before that. Man (and Woman) has always wanted to express him/herself, and for sure, change his/her mind as well.

There is actually a Pencil Museum in England. And I must say, they have the coolest website…(click on their “History” tab and scroll down)…clearly a group of people who appreciate all things pencil. The museum traces the birth of the pencil all the way back to graphite being discovered in 1500 and lists 1832 as the first record of a factory in Keswick making pencils.

People boast they can complete the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink.

How lacking in elegance.

A pencil and a crossword puzzle just go together. My mother used to have dozens of 3-inch pencils spread around the kitchen so she could do her morning puzzle while we ate breakfast. Pencils are home. Lunchboxes. Dick and Jane.

Pencil Revolution is a blog devoted to the love and use of pencils. Yes, there’s a community out there. We know we are.

What about you…do you reach for a pen or a pencil? If you are a secret pencil lover, do you proudly show your writing instrument, or reserve it for use only in private?

Don’t be shy, go back to your roots. Pick up a pencil. Roll it in your fingers, smell the graphite, and feel your blood pressure slowly go down. And down. And down….