The Vintage Fountain Pen: Wearable Tech and Metaphor

A good fountain pen is a technological marvel.  For example, a vintage Parker 51 took over a decade to develop and was revolutionary in many respects:

• the redesigned hooded 14k nib provided smoother writing and ink overflow was trapped under the hood instead of drying on the nib or blotting onto the paper; 
• the smooth jet-like barrel was made of lucite, the same material used in the nose-cones of jet planes;
• ink was infused through a unique aeromatic filler system; 
• the cap had a clutch system to hold it in place; 
• the clip attached to a bushing inside the cap and was topped by a celluloid "jewel." 

From top to bottom and inside to outside the "51" is a technological marvel.  In an MIT poll the Parker 51 was voted the fourth best industrial design in the 20th century!

Maybe not "tech-wow" to the level of today's "google-ese, " at our fingertips, but I think the fountain pen genre is in many ways superior to today's communication technology which tends to create or amplify:

• reducing communication and language to tech-speak, slang, and emojis;
• enabling anonymous but cutting rudeness and often bullying;
• creating minute by minute distractions;
• contributing to shallow and fleeting thought;
• adding to stress.

Fountain  pens on the other hand can be a unique addition to our communication tools by contributing to the physical act  and ritual of writing, thus:

• leading to mindfulness and soothing through creative motion rather than thumb-taps;
• occupying more of our senses as we slow down;
• becoming a personal tool as the gold nib melds to your writing style, providing character to your words;
• providing an opportunity for true communication rather than disposable transmittals;
• offering an heirloom that can be handed down from generation to generation.

I suggest that aside from the admiration of technology and the added value of communicating by  fountain pen, a vintage fountain pen is a powerful metaphor.  It conveys the gift of age--be it pens or people-- that have withstood the test of time and are still useful, beautiful, desirable, and consequential... with much to offer.

Tribute to My Best Friend

From  my unpublished collection of poems, Boyhood from a Distance.....


Tribute

Growing up
there are many friends and
then some smaller number of
good friends and
then one best
friend

Mike Keefe was mine and
I was his

But Mike was mostly in the few-friends group because
of how he was put together

His face was mapped with freckles

Spiky red hair looked like
bubblegum was cut out of it by a mad mom

Ears didn't work right
so big button things in them
connected to
a cord dangling down
to a giant transmitter
in his shirt pocket and
the contraption fell
apart
when he ran

Words came out thick of tongue
or a little different
because he couldn't hear so well

All this
and you couldn't tell when he suffered
jokes and mocking because
he smiled when he couldn't hear and
he smiled when he was happy so
he smiled all the time

This early best friend
taught me

the value of looking deeper
into a person than looks
or quirks

To know and celebrate
deeper qualities

loyalty and humor
courage and forgiveness
smarts

There has been more to hold on over the years
from one best friend than my
teachers all put together

The Gift of Real Friends

Summertime brings occasions to celebrate true friends.  We recently enjoyed a long lunchtime with our friends of 40 years--Nancy and Rick Boyd.  What a good time it was, getting updates on our kids who grew up together and how perfect they are!  And of course tales of the grandkids, all of whom carry forth the legacy of perfection. Over the years our families have been together during baptisms, graduations, weddings, funerals, big celebrations and  quiet times together. Our times with long-time friends like the Boyds, Browns, and Graessers bring to mind and heart the gift of authentic friendship.

Authentic friendship is in contrast to today's number games regarding Facebook friends.  An article in Forbes by Amit Chowdry cites a study that says most of your Facebook friends are not real friends.   The study by Oxford University psychology professor Robin Dunbar. Chowdry states Dunbar studied 3,375 Facebook users between the ages of 18 and 65 in the UK.  These users had an average of 150 friends, of which 4.1 were dependable and 13.6 expressed sympathy during an emotional crisis.  The study states that younger users are likely to have more Facebook friends but older users tend to have more friends in real life.

This is not to disrespect Facebook friends, and there are many advantages to maintaining a network of social media contacts, but not to the exclusion of real friends who are true companions on our journey, a gift that becomes more valuable with each passing year.

As journalist Jon Katz stares, "Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together.  Powerful Stuff."

We came away from lunch realizing how important it is to nurture, celebrate, and give time to our real friends.

The Gift of a New School Year

A thought as teachers and administrators gather for a New School Year....


Tell them they're lucky....

 I would like to share a story about my son, Kevin.  Our family was blessed to have our son, brother, and friend with us for sixteen years.  When he was eleven he was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, an aggressive cancer that wrapped around his spine.  After surgery and five years of radiation and chemo...then hope, courage, perseverance, despair... and then peace, reconciliation, and joy, Kevin passed away. I will come back to his story in a moment.

One of the great gifts in education is the opportunity for renewal.  There is a formal, often ceremonious end to one year sometime in June and then another beginning is marked sometime in August with meetings and wonderful ceremonies and traditions.  The time between provides very special opportunities to take off the old and put on the new--ranging from teacher-student-parent-administrator energy and spirit to boiler repair and floor wax.  Each new school year provides familiar--and yet somehow new--smells sights, sounds, hopes, aspirations, and intentions.  This brings me back to Kevin.

I was serving as superintendent and about this time of the year was preparing for that new year.  In the spirit of renewal and new beginnings, I worked hard to prepare some comments for the principals and teachers that would hopefully capture and build on the spirit of this moment given to us in the life of our schools.  As I was leaving the house for the meeting I stopped by Kevin's room.  He was now paralyzed from the waist down and confined to his bed or a chair that I would lift him into each day.  We talked for a few minutes and as I was leaving I asked if there was anything I should say to the principals and teachers (I often sought his wisdom).  Without hesitation he said, "Tell them they're lucky."

I was stopped short as these four simple words of wisdom, insight and challenge seared into my heart.  They took on extra meaning coming from a young man who knew that we would soon pass from this life.  The words were not spoken with a tone of anger, jealousy, or self-pity; instead, they echoed hope and promise that each new day, each new year brings to our lives.  Whatever words I had prepared were never shared and are long forgotten.  But each year thereafter, I shared Kevin's.

"Tell them they're lucky."  Indeed we in schools are.  We have life.  And we have a new opportunity to come together as a community to share in the challenge, hope, and promise of another school year and to continue investing in the future of our children.

Peace and best wishes for this school year.

The Sluice Restaurant: In the Business of Building Memories

The Sluice Restaurant was an award-winning institution in the Black Hills for 13 years.  It was known for its 30-plus page menu and unique environment utilizing many of the historical artifacts of the northern Black Hills.

The employees went through an extensive ten-block training and visioning program.  Three principals of service instilled in the vision were:

• We are not in the business of cooking and serving food.  We are in the business of building      memories.

• Understand the 10-10-10 Theory.  You can ruin in 10 seconds what it took us 10 years and and 10 thousand dollars to build up.  CONVERSELY,  in 10 seconds you can provide what  would take us 10 years and 10 thousand dollars to build up.

• When you place food in front of our guests, know that they probably hired a baby sitter, drove 40 miles, and were on the waiting list for an hour.  It had better be good.

I would love to hear from anyone who has a Sluice memory.

Introduction to Kaleidoscope Blog

I am beginning a blog that provides the opportunity to reflect on and share the many and varied interests and experiences collected in seven decades.  Retirement is a time when a person can feel increasingly irrelevant.  Hopefully, one way to bring more relevance to a lot of yesterdays and fewer tomorrows is to share, kaleidoscopic like,  bits of experiences held loosely in a rotating life that has brought continually changing patterns.

I have written several poems, loosely connected under the title,  Boyhood from a Distance. One poem serves as a brief reflection of times we all experience:

Good Old Times

Once is something old

carried around less time than you want but

longer than others care

So it is finally rolled in a paper bag and

dropped along the way

but then kept always

 inside you

and rubbed smooth and shiny as

a memory