A Case for the Pencil

(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap)




My world is full of complex machines. I live by my computer, my phone goes everywhere with me--I even have it on a table beside the tub when I take a bubble bath.

But I have a long-running love affair with a much simpler instrument. The pencil. Preferably the yellow Dixon Ticonderoga #2. The same pencil I've been writing notes with since I was a schoolgirl.

The other day, prowling through Roost, an antiques shop in Spokane, I found a vintage Made-in-England pencil case worthy of my Ticonderogas. I brought it home and now it sits on my desk full of freshly-sharpened yellow pencils ready for work.

As I wrote in my Spokesman-Review Treasure Hunting antiques blog, a pencil is good for first thoughts. It feels right in the hand, balances on the end of a finger. A pencil forgives, erasing what you want to change.