Creativity
Of Pens And The Subconscious.
Several years ago, I purchased a yellow Lamy Safari with an EF nib. I used it constantly, and carried it with me just about everywhere. I would fill out my paperwork at work with it, and use it on my Moleskine.
In any case, it went missing last spring, and I had to switch to another daily pen. I missed it, but kept hoping to find it, and so I never replaced it..
Fast forward to last week: I was cleaning out my closet and found a sweatshirt that I hadn’t worn in a while, so I decided to wear it that day. I
Had it on when I suddenly thought about my missing pen, and decided to order a replacement. I went on Jetpens, and ordered a white Lamy to replace my lost yellow one.
Didn’t think a thing about it until that evening when I went to take the shirt off, and guess what I found in the pocket? My missing yellow pen.
I have been wondering since: if my subconscious was trying to tell me that my pen was in that sweatshirt, and I misunderstood and just took it as a chance to replace it? I mean somewhere deep in my brain I must have known that I left the pen in the pocket, and so that bubbled up into my consciousness somehow….
In any case, I decided to not cancel the order since I really will lose the pen again at some point, and the white looks so good on my iPad after all……..
-Ezra
Ode To The Composition Book
The lowly school composition book, the simple tool that has been used by so many.
A few days ago I picked up a $1 marbled composition book to record the progress of a current project, and upon picking it up, I was flooded with memories, it brought me back to my school days.
That black and white marbled cover and familiar size, the single signature of pages, and the cheap, but sturdy construction is unchanged in the 15 years since I last held one.
I have been into the whole ‘Moleskine thing’ for about 7 or 8 years now, and have looked down on the cheaper notebooks as inferior, but perhaps that is just pride, after all it is what is inside that counts.
I chose this one specifically because it was cheap, I wanted to use it to record notes on a messy experiment, and knew it would get wet, and smudged, so I didn’t want to put one of my precious Moles through that, but I wonder if that desire to keep my notes clear and clean and precise is a downfall?
When I first started to use the Moleskines, I only had one size: the pocket size, and I carried it with me everywhere. I put it in my back pocket, and sat on it, I had it with me every day I was working in dirty wet conditions, and the edges would get wet, and the ink would run. Just about the time I filled one up, it would start to come apart. Those first 3 or 4 Moleskines are ragged and torn, the covers are stuck on with gorilla tape, and the markers are frayed.
Now I have a bit more sedate life, and more of a clean work environment, I also don’t carry my moles in my pocket, but rather in my bag (which is always with me) and so they are in much better shape when I am done with them.
Conversely, I don’t use them as much; having them closer to my hand makes me more likely to use them in the few moments I have standing in line, than if I have to unzip my bag, and then open my pen case. Now I tend to use my notebooks for longer stretches, but the tendency to just fill them with instant inspiration is gone.
Now when I am waiting in line, I reach for my iPhone instead.
These lowly composition books are really jewels in a way that Moleskines can never be. Because they are cheap and readily available, the bar is set low, and there is no hesitation to use them.
I won’t stop using my Moleskines, as they are a wonderful tool that I have grown quote attached to, but I intend to get a few more of these ordinary cheap little books, and I intend to use them.
-Ezra Hilyer
Read MoreMoleskine, Lamy Al-Star And Ple Ple
My Lamy Al-Star Graphite, and my Mole. In the background is a Ple Ple Wrap Pen case.
I bought the pens and case from Jet-Pens.
-Ezra
Create!
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I do not absorb; I radiate!
I do not consume; I create!
This is my motto; it is my creed. I spend hours each day forcing my mind to follow that path. The majority of the hours in my day are not under my control; between my job, and the work I do on the house, I have perhaps 3 hours a day to spend as I wish.
I choose to spend that time in creative endeavors, not in fruitless consumption of mass-media, I choose not to have a TV for the simple reason that the time spent in-front of the Television, is wasted.
The time that I would spend there on the couch, I put into other things: this blog is one of those. I carry around a notebook, and write down ideas, that would otherwise evaporate; and in that time after work, and before bed, I take those ideas out, and expand upon them.
I would not be able to survive otherwise; I am not content to live my life as a bio-mechanical machine, to work my life for the pursuit of ‘Things’, I wish to experience life to a fuller extent than I have been able heretofore.
When I pay my bills, I do not pay them with simple dollars, but with hours of my life, each penny spent, is a part of my life that I have sold. When will the hemorrhaging of hours end? Will I forever be stuck in this perpetual circle of life from one paycheck to the next?
I refuse to accept this; I refuse to acknowledge even the chance of a life spent in this way. I wish to have my time free to create. To make this world a better place, and to explore all the avenues of thought.
There is precious little time to learn all that there is to learn, and to visit all the places in this world that hold beauty. Why spend all my life behind a desk, in a dark cellar? Or to weaken my eyes with the flickering images on a small screen?
I am going for a walk.
-Ezra
About Ezra Hilyer
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