Dear Reader,

There are many similarities between ourselves and a pencil: I will try to list some of the most evident ones to get at the end to the most curious one (at least for me!)

In the following sentences, I will leave out the subject: the intention is that you can swap it between “pencil/pencils” and “person/people”, and the text should flow in both cases. So let’s go for it!

At the very least, some are harder, some are softer, some are broken too early, and some are lost before leaving their best mark on the world.

Some mistakes you make with them are easily erasable, some are not, yet every correction leaves a bit of a crease or indentation.

They get dull, yet they can be sharpened.

Some are handled roughly, some are taken good care of, and some are sadly forgotten.

Good or bad, no matter what mark you leave with it, it will get less and less crisp with time.

The results you get from them can be better and more enjoyable when you join them with others.

Their inner core is everlasting. (Let me sidetrack for a moment to provide an explanation, at the cost of sounding nerdy. I am referring to graphite, which is the most stable form of carbon – yes, diamonds are not forever, they decay into graphite over thousands and thousands of years and to our human DNA, which I hope to be lasting for quite a while more)

Some like to be fancy and fashionably dressed. Some are down-to-earth and plain.

They are everywhere, and it’s easy to meet some you have never met before.

I’m sure you could point out many more similarities, and in a much more poetic way, if you are so inclined. However, patience is not always my strong suit, and I’d like to get straight to the one that struck me the most, the one that I feel closest to me.

What follows requires a bit of setup. Please bear with me. Try to remember what happens when you first put a pencil on a sheet of paper or, better yet, grab a pencil and experiment! Depending on the minute details on the tip, your first mark may not always be exactly where you want it to be. It can also be a lot sharper or more smeared than you prefer. The tip may have imperfections that cause a double “ghost” line. The point, especially when too sharp, may crumble a little and leave a stronger first dot on contact. The tip may also break completely, often if the pencil was already damaged and/or is used too vigorously.

If you were able to visualise those circumstances, then it will not be difficult for you to get this last similarity: every time they are met with a new situation, the final outcomes are at first unpredictable.

Maybe it is just me, but lately, I feel like every time is pretty much like the first time for me. I need to get sharp again, maybe to bring out a new piece of white paper and change the subject of my drawing.

Until next time, we will see what happens next.