Posted in Blog Fun
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A pencil. It doesn't look like much....a long slender piece of wood with a black point on one end, and a pink piece of rubber on the other. If we were to define a pencil we might say: a wooden cylinder filled with lead used primarily as a writing instrument. Though it sounds quite useful, that definition doesn't seem exciting, inspirational, imaginative, or insightful. However, the pencil is more that just what it appears to be. I want to take you on a journey of sorts where we will see where this simple ordinary pencil can take us and what it can teach us. Our journey begins with a 3 year old Rebecca seated at a small wooden table that is just her size. On the table before her is a piece of white paper and an ordinary pencil. Rebecca picks up the pencil and begins to mark on the plain white paper...swirling, scribbling, making erratic lines. Suddenly she looks down at her masterpiece and is overcome with joy at her accomplishment. She runs to the kitchen holding up the paper saying "Mommy, Mommy, look what I made!" Mommy looks knowingly at the paper. There is not a trace of a recognizable figure on the page, but Mommy smiles lovingly expressing her pleasure in her little girls masterpiece. Mommy says, "What a beautiful picture Rebecca. Did you do that all by yourself?" "Yes Mommy I did", comes Rebecca's reply. "This is beautiful. I know you worked very hard on this", says Mommy as she gives Rebecca a hug and kiss on the cheek. Rebecca runs off to play with the satisfaction in her heart that she has done well, and her Mommy is proud of her. The pencil was a tool that brought Rebecca's imagination to life. A short distance down the road a 6th grade boy is in his room seated at his desk. Before him is his math homework. As he stares at his text book he cannot imagine how all of those numbers can actually mean anything worthwhile. Wishing he were outside playing ball instead he reluctantly prepares to do the assignment. Picking up his pencil he begins to write the sample problem on his paper. Step by step he follows the sample writing down each part with his pencil. Suddenly there is an overwhelming sense that he actually understands this once thought of jumble of numbers! Excitedly he says aloud, "I can do this! I understand how to do this!" Feverishly he writes, working problem after problem, with new found confidence until all the problems are completed. The pencil was an instrument that he used on the path to thought and understanding. Around the corner and down the street a man sits in his den in a comfortable chair with a laptop in his lap. He's on a deadline to finish a book he is writing, and for some reason there is not a thought in his head that he can put down on paper. Unaccustomed to writing his stories using the computer he feels a little out of sorts. "Something is wrong here, and I just cannot put my finger on it", he says. He lays his hand on the side table beside him and lost in his thoughts picks up a pencil and begins to twirl it in his fingers. "Where is the freedom I once had in writing stories? There was such a simplicity to writing then, but now it's....." Suddenly it occurred to him that his last thought, and the object he held in his hand, was the answer he had been searching for so long. "Simplify! That's it. It was so much simpler before when I had a pencil and paper in hand. That was when I was able to accomplish the most in my writing." Taking the pencil in hand and finding a legal pad on which to write he sat down again in his comfortable chair. The words began to flow and he found himself writing at a feverish pace. The pencil inspired him to take the simpler path that had always produced his best work. So you see, the pencil, though simple in form, is more than just a pencil. It is a tool that brings imagination to life, an instrument that we use on the path to thought and understanding, and can sometimes be our inspiration to relish the simplicity of life and all that we can accomplish in it. October Blog Tip Challenge of the Month |
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