Whither Pencils?

(Image from here.)

Why not pencils, I ask you?  Why not a radio show about writing & drawing implements?  Why not more songs written every day about pens, pencils, paintbrushes?  Even as I type this on a computer keyboard, even as I know my handwriting is now so awful that my cursive is unreadable & my printing at best only slightly less confusing than hieroglyphics, I still ask why not celebrate the best thing we can do with our hands, writing, drawing, doodling, sketching?

But since this show is the vanguard, since we are only just now issuing this call to action, we will have to start with the simple: the humble pencil.  That little wooden tool has been a devoted companion for most of my life, & yet, as I write this, I am ashamed to say I have no pencils on my desk.  Indeed, there are a few pens in a little mug & the only paper is in a drawer in the printer.  What has happened to me?  What has happened to my life?

Today I shall go to some stationary store - not a chain store, not a Max Office or Depot or whatever - & I'll buy some nice pencils & some paper.  I have no letters to write - let's face it, there's something much more satisfying with email - & I have nothing I want to draw.  But to have a desk without paper & pencil?  It makes me feel that I have lost myself along the way.

Tonight's show, a celebration of the pencil, is on from 9-11pm eastern, 8-10 central, on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online at Lexington Community Radio Online, please choose the WLXU side.  Limited edition copies will be made available after the fact of the show transcribed in pencil.  I wish!