Every adult should have a really elegant pen.
Mine? Is a gorgeous hot yellow Waterman Charleston fountain pen with a medium gold nib and a really nice heft to it. Look at it. Love it. When I use that bad boy, people think I know something. This pen is elegant and sophisticated, and these are traits I could stand to be associated with. It makes you feel good in the same way as your favorite shirt. Or like when your underpants and bra match. You feel like you’ve really got it together.
We e-mail and txt constantly – or at least I do. And that requires a lot of words, much more than it requires a lot of thought. With a big, heavy, gorgeous fountain pen? You think about getting comfortable and clearing your mind. With no backspace key or copy/paste function, you think about each word. When you mess something up? You want to start over, because the end result should be a beautiful and cohesive document.
This isn’t txting or pinging. And you don’t lol or ttyl. You compose a note. I’ll even admit that sometimes I’ll write a draft on a steno pad so that I don’t waste the good stationary and can concentrate on keeping things as pretty and organized as possible.
Using whole words and full sentences, and polite salutations. People like it. Go figure. You can say more with less.
There’s something about writing with a beautiful instrument that makes you chose your words more carefully. It lends a sense of ceremony to an important signature. Don’t sign your mortgage with that pen you got at the chiropractor.
People who take pens far too seriously:
Do you have a piece of advice to share? All topics welcome.
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I’m all for using a good pen (and I own several), but let’s be honest — how often do you write something anymore? Beyond signing my own name, I hardly ever put pen-to-paper.
Apparently a whole generation of children are growing up who will never learn to write in cursive — just crude, functional, block letters.
You’re totally right. I have this beautiful pen that I use for Thank You notes, signing checks, and the occasional work meeting when I want to feel like a grownup. And I have this crap handwriting that has been utterly demolished by 12 years of tippety typing full-time.
Checks? CHECKS? What are these checks you speak of?
Actually, I had to write a check yesterday, and we were talking about how checks were really dying out. I looked at my checkbook (of 25 checks) and realised that in the last seven years (when I started this particular checkbook) I have only written 14 checks. And half of them are to the same person (my dentist, who doesn’t accept electronic payments).
Our working culture has changed so much that everyone turns up in meetings with their laptops — and most of us are so much quicker at typing than writing that the laptop replaces the notepad.
I carry a pen every day and feel naked without it — odd, really, considering how infrequently I use it.
Thanks for the link:)
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