How mighty is the pen? It’s fatal.

 The Pen is? Mightier Than Some Swords

So nearly all of us have had the experience of scrambling around to find a pen to quickly sign something or scrawl a number down on a post-it note that we will about half the time find 13 months later wondering “what’s this password for my neighbor’s Netflix account doing in my sock drawer/—and where’s the matching sock for this green and white striped argyle?  But in the process of doing this, the first pen we grab won’t work and instead of walking immediately to the trash and throwing it away..it lives in the pile of stuff on your counter to strike again another day.  

So we find another pen and get thee job done and it’s only slightly stressful, however, we all know that stress kills.  Most heart attacks happen on Mondays and it might not be a coincidence that the added stress of searching for the pen only to have it fail combined with the fact that the pen had the weekend to let the ink dry that last little bit and BAMM!!!

So you say that’s all just random bad luck…well maybe, however, how much do we really know about pens?

Historical accounts vary with regard to where and when pens first became a writing tool for humans.  Most sources say they originated in Ancient Egypt…some say in about 3,000 and others say 5,000 B.C.  How would we know?   Before pens only Cyrus with the tablet carving tools was around to record history or some dude in China could record things so everything was invented in ancient China or Egypt because they were the first to write stuff down. Nonetheless, and None-the -More either these first pens were a strong reed that spread “ink” made of soot and bees wax.  How do we know that?  Well Ancient Chinese symbols showed that there were these soot and bees wax droppings on the lambs wool pocket protectors dating back to the Ming Dynasty.  Okay maybe not… we’re just fooling with chatGPT.   

Okaymoving forward it would appear that these types of devices were used until about 700 A.D. when the “quill” pen came into vogue.  This type of pen is the “feather” type and pen came from a longer word in greek that stood for feather but since ink was hard to come by they shortened it to pen—again just fooling with ChatGPT.  Well it was about 700 and this type of pen (feather) was quite useful.  Swan feathers were the best, however, goose feathers were far easier to come by—Swans are pretty, but they are nasty and don’t give up their feathers easily).  It was in the late 1880’s when a Paton was issued for the instrument we might call a ballpoint today.  Evidence suggests that there were a number of pens like that prior to 1888 where some dude named Lord made his mark.  

Yet, some other thins had to happen to make the pens work better.  There needed to be the evolution  of quicker drying ink as people writing left handed were constantly dragging there hand through the ink and smearing it all over their pages and their puffy sleeves.  

The major advance in pens came late in the 1940’s when the “Bic” pen came into existence. Here was a pen that didn’t require ink wells, would write an estimate of 45,000 words without needed a new one and if you were of a mind to you could draw straight line of over a mile without stopping which one should note makes it even more upsetting when one doesn’t. Write on demand on Monday when you need to get this darn paperwork off your desk while you chug down your second energy drink to get your body up to speed. 

Yet it’s not only the stress that kills.  Year after year about 100 people dieter swallowing pen caps.  Although it adds to the cost of production BIC now manufactures their caps with a hole in them so when swallowed some air can pass through.  Since most major lottery jackpots pay out less than weekly simple math tells us that your chance of dying by the pen are probably at least twice as good as winning the lottery.  

So what does any of this have to do with seeking peace and joy?  

Well journalling is often an activity suggested by therapists and creative writing teachers.  The claims are that it helps to improve or lessen anxiety.  Maybe that’s because if you don’t choke to death on the cap you prove to yourself that you want to and have survived a potentially dangerous event?   Seriously, writing is good  and using your favorite pen can add to the small pleasure of doing that.—unless you try to do that with the world’s largest ballpoint which stands around 18 feet tall and weighs around 180 pounds… Rumor has it they have a giant  being paid slave labor to use that pen to sign all the checks for golf tournaments.  

Of course this is jest, they pay the golfers in tickets they can use to buy those fuzzy dice and huge slinky  toys at the counter before they leave —unless you are the big champ you can buy a CD player for the 24 million tickets you won.  

Ok.. yes if you like the physical motion of writing a pen can unleash the thoughts that will make you feel like you can engage  more fully in life and that is very powerful stuff which can provide you with peace, joy, and a sense of meeting some of the purposes in your life.  What you write can give a message that someone in the future can read and understand how the crazy path of history brought the family to this town etc.   It’s called a legacy and most people want to know that their stroll on this planet had some meaning and if you can’t figure it out..then maybe this writing can provide some clues that the future dwellers can use to figure out why you were here?  For that reason alone pens are very mighty and unless you swallow the cap are a great valuable thing to have because everyone has a story a set of adventures including lessons learned and some triumphs that lift the spirits of people around them.  

So grab a pen or a keyboard  —or use auto-dictate …but read that first… and tell your powerful story..reduce your stress and bring a smile to the face of someone.  Oh and for goodness sake keep the cap out of your mouth if you happen to pull it off the pen.