Encouragement

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Pencils

Sometimes when you sharpen a pencil, then remove it from the sharpener for examination, you find that the lead is gone; there's just a hole there. The exposed end of the black stuff fell out because the stick of lead broke.

Other times, the lead will be extended too far out of the pencil casing, a sure visual clue that a break exists. It doesn't take a degree in mechanical engineering to know that you just have to pull on this loose piece of lead to remove it from the pencil, putting us squarely at that hole juncture again.

Is the pencil ruined when the lead breaks, and worthy of only the trashcan?

Hardly. Just sharpen it a little more, and lead will eventually show itself, allowing the pencil to be shaped into a peak, a point, arriving back at a place of usefulness.

On occasion, you might pull out a long piece of lead from a damaged pencil, and then have to patiently crank the sharpener for a while to get the pencil finally returned to the same functionality it once had.

Sure, each act of sharpening is actually destroying wood and paint, a stripping and grinding action that can't be pleasant for the pencil.

And sure, the more sharpening that occurs, the shorter the pencil is...but that's okay. Even the shortest of pencils can still make a mark when in the grasp of the writer.

That is to say, The Writer. Take it from me, your pal, Stubby.

Brenda Kern
March 2, 2004

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