Pens and Pencils

Day 76: Pens and Pencils

One bag for recycling, one bag to donate
to the office supply pile at the Arb & Gardens

What if you lived in a home where every pen had ink? Where every wooden pencil was sharp, and every mechanical pencil had lead? What if you took it one step further, and decided that every writing implement should be a pleasure to use? No more mingy ballpoints or chewed stubs. Every pen has flowing ink that glides across the paper. Every pencil has a soft eraser.

For me, such a goal would involve recycling this many pens, giving away this many ballpoints, and sharpening this many pencils.

The endeavor - testing every pen in the house - is one I made every three years since the kids were born. Each time I do it, I remember half-naked Turkana children, children who were grateful for a single Bic pen, which we tourists tossed over the truck rails like coins in a wishing well. 

In my part of the world, cheap washable art supplies begin to flow into your home as soon as your children can hold a pen. Scented markers, fabric markers, erasable markers, white board markers, teeny wee markers, big thick markers, sharpies, sparkle pens, gel pens, click pens, crayons, pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, highlighters. We've got them all in spades.

Emma loves office supplies and hates school. Every August, we have a ritual. We head down to Office Max for an infusion of binders, spiral bound notebooks, date books, WhiteOut, graph paper and rulers. Somehow, the crisp newness of these things makes the end of summer easier to bear. I guess we won't do that again. One last marker that passed by, without my realizing.

Usually, I'm not as ruthless getting rid of markers and ballpoint pens. But the days of posters and collages are done. These days, it's all memorization and multiple choice, book reports and research projects double-spaced and neatly printed. The half-dried markers will be dead before anyone uses them again. Might as well put the Bics and #2's to good use somewhere else.

Makes me sad just thinking about it.