So many people have told me over the years that life is essentially easy for writers. After all, they’ve said, a writer can work with the simplest of tools: paper and pen.
I’ve always smiled, because I know that they were identifying the wrong objects as the writer’s tools. I also smiled because these people are completely unaware of the true complexity that that can be involved in the choice of those tools.
Just to cite one example, some writers can really obsess over the choice of a pen. I once worked with a woman who had a fondness for a particular pen. This woman was so picky that she was actually having trouble working with the company-issued (in other words, cheap) pens we had in the office where we worked.
Although I don’t remember why, the office manager gave us permission to go pen shopping one day. This was before Staples and Office Max, so we went downtown to the local stationery supply store.
As my co-worker fondled and tried out a variety of pens, I was awestruck by the sheer number of styles and models available. I was always the kind of guy who can pretty much write with any kind of pen. All during my student days, from junior high to graduate school, I used Bic pens because they were cheap. But I could use anything with a point and an ink supply.
I truly don’t remember what kind of pen my buddy bought that day. I only remember that she was happy and able to work. She had the right pen. I still didn’t understand the big deal.
In the years since my discovery of pen options, I have encountered people who have a deep fondness for a specific keyboard. For some, it goes back to the keyboard on which they learned to type; for others, they discovered a particular keyboard by accident and LOVE it and can no longer do without it.
And I don’t understand these people either. I learned to type on Royal manual typewriters--the big cast iron jobs. I also used a Royal manual portable just because it was affordable. But I’ve also used IBM Selectrics and a whole range of computer keyboards.
So I’ve never really been too choosy about my keyboard. Even now that I’ve discovered the wonderful keyboard on the MacBook Pro, I can still easily use other keyboards. The MacBook Pro keyboard has a great touch and just feels right to me as a touch typist.
But I can write even when I’m away from that keyboard. I can still write productively with a cheap ballpoint pen and a pad of paper.
Because those really aren’t the writer’s tools. At least, they’re not the really important tools. The vital tools for the writer are the imagination, the vocabulary, and the need to express thoughts in words. Without those tools, the right pen and the right keyboard are really useless.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9/11
You know what this blog post is about. All any American needs to hear is "9/11" and images of the World Trade Center on fire flashes through the mind. A mix of emotions including anger, frustration, and fear takes over.
It's an iconic date like few in American history. 9/11. It's the day that international terrorism attacked us on our own soil. It's the day that international terrorism violated all of us.
The key is that it was international terrorism. After all, 4/19 doesn't come close to evoking the evoking a sense of violation for most Americans that 9/11 does.
Don't remember 4/19? That's the date that a pair of clean-cut white American males parked a van loaded with fertilizer and fuel oil in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and then detonated it. The resulting explosion killed nearly 650 people, including children who were in the building's daycare center.
I've never completely understood why so many people have apparently forgotten 4/19/95. The idea that American citizens were so angry at the government that they planned and executed such an attack absolutely chills me to my core. Ever since that day, I've wondered how many more clean cut Americans are out there thinking about striking a blow against the government by blowing something up.
Many words will be written and spoken today about 9/11 and the necessity that we never forget that day. I certainly won't. But one of the disturbing lessons that some people have apparently learned is that Muslims are evil--after all, it was a bunch of Muslims who struck us on 9/11. None of those people think Catholics are evil, in spite of the fact that one of the 4/19 bombers was Catholic. Both of those attackers were Army veterans, and nobody thinks veterans are evil.
I sincerely hope that Americans who work to never forget 9/11 also remember that it was members of al Qaeda who attacked us on 9/11. That's the group that means to harm the United States; al Qaeda, not Muslims.
It's an iconic date like few in American history. 9/11. It's the day that international terrorism attacked us on our own soil. It's the day that international terrorism violated all of us.
The key is that it was international terrorism. After all, 4/19 doesn't come close to evoking the evoking a sense of violation for most Americans that 9/11 does.
Don't remember 4/19? That's the date that a pair of clean-cut white American males parked a van loaded with fertilizer and fuel oil in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and then detonated it. The resulting explosion killed nearly 650 people, including children who were in the building's daycare center.
I've never completely understood why so many people have apparently forgotten 4/19/95. The idea that American citizens were so angry at the government that they planned and executed such an attack absolutely chills me to my core. Ever since that day, I've wondered how many more clean cut Americans are out there thinking about striking a blow against the government by blowing something up.
Many words will be written and spoken today about 9/11 and the necessity that we never forget that day. I certainly won't. But one of the disturbing lessons that some people have apparently learned is that Muslims are evil--after all, it was a bunch of Muslims who struck us on 9/11. None of those people think Catholics are evil, in spite of the fact that one of the 4/19 bombers was Catholic. Both of those attackers were Army veterans, and nobody thinks veterans are evil.
I sincerely hope that Americans who work to never forget 9/11 also remember that it was members of al Qaeda who attacked us on 9/11. That's the group that means to harm the United States; al Qaeda, not Muslims.
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