The pen is mightier than the sword.  Where does that leave pencils?  In grade school?  I hope not.

Many of us think of pencils as the stuff of children and math.  Sure there was a time when engineers used pencils and slide rulers to get to the moon but now it’s all on computers.  There was a time when pencils were cutting edge!  I mean, it was the 1600s.  But they didn’t have cat memes so it was easier to get excited about pencils back then.

When I use a pencil everything from the sound of it gliding around a page to the smell makes me happy.  I know many people don’t like the smell of pencils as it reminds them of annoying math homework or practicing their handwriting.  I used to be one of them, I hated the smell.  Then I tried to put that away and just evaluate the aroma.  It’s really nice.

Many a pen person will wax Quixotic on the joys of a big, heavy, fat barrelled pen.  I was one of those pen people once.  Tilting at fat barrelled windmills!  Then I tried a pencil again after years of ink.  It turns out that a lightweight wood case pencil with its easy writing, effortless balance and thinner hex barrel just about disappears in the hand leading to a much more fluid creative process (for me, at least).

I’m not here to talk about smells or fat barrels.  I’m here to talk about creativity.  Writing.  Here is where, I think, the pencil has some magic all its own.  No sword required.

Most of us used pencils when we were young and impressionable.  Back when getting up to sharpen a pencil was the childhood equivalent of a smoke break.  Before our minds began to close with the cynicism of age.  Pencils evoke open-mindedness.

They’re also erasable.  Sure, graphite can be more permanent than any ink (it’s just carbon after all) but any time you want you can drag that familiar piece of pink rubber over the page and it’s gone.  Like magic.  Or, more specifically, a magic trick that teaches you that it’s okay to make mistakes.

So, a pencil puts us in a place of open-mindedness and remind us that mistakes are a part of life.  That’s better than an episode of Sesame Street!

Pencils, mightier than the sword?  Maybe not.  But a worthy addition to your arsenal? Absolutely!