Of Fountain Pens & People

A new sub-hobby of mine right now is collecting and learning about fountain pens. The hobby this is subordinate to is writing. As I mentioned in my first newsletter, "Knowing Me," writing has been my one true lifelong hobby. Naturally, if you write, the old-fashioned manual way, with a pen and paper, you will want and need the appropriate tools to do so. Sure, I could use a standard .99 cent ballpoint pen to get the job done, but what fun would that be? Not only that, long term writing with a ballpoint pen isn't enjoyable, especially once you've used a fountain pen and feel the difference in how it writes.

They're incredibly smooth as they glide, effortlessly, across the paper and lay down the ink in any fashion of ways depending on the style of the pen you're using. I'm not going to pretend I know everything about fountain pens because I certainly don't. I am new to them and learning a lot as I read about them and use them myself now. At the time of this writing, I have a total of 3 fountain pens in my collection and two more on order. I have three bottles of ink, each a different color too.

What I know about fountain pens is that aside from the look and style which is infinite, they all have a basic design that allows them all to function. The nib is the most crucial part of the pen. The nib is the part where the ink flows through a metal piece made of anything from aluminum to steel to gold. The end of the nib has a ball, and the nib itself is split into two or even three sections. It's this split that when pushed gently down on paper splits apart and allows the ink to flow through to the paper.

Then you have the barrel that typically unscrews from the lower part where you can put ink cartridges in, or another piece called a converter. A converter is used to draw in ink and be used over and over again. A cartridge is a one-time use item.

After that, you have a cap and the shirt clip as the essential parts of the pen.

From my limited experience with fountain pens, I have already discovered that each one is unique and writes just a little bit different from the next one. It's the nib that makes the difference based on its design style. You can get nibs in ultrafine, fine, medium, broad, italic, music and even a few other styles. Each one is unique and works best in certain types of writing and plays a significant role in the person's preference and style of their handwriting. For example, a music nib is used by musicians to pen down musical notes and add that elegant extra bit of flare to them. A fine nib will work best for someone who has small handwriting, and an italic or even a broad nib works better for someone who may have a bit more of a flamboyant style of writing, such as large letters and big loops on the closed letters of the alphabet.

Just like each fountain pen is different so too is each of us. Being different isn't a matter of good or bad or better and best. Instead, being different is just that, different. Our talents and skills are unique to ourselves and contribute in many valuable ways to our work, our lives, and society.

It's important to keep this in mind every day when we interact with people at work and around us and especially on the phone with our callers. Every human is like a fountain pen. They are all different, look different, and work differently. It's a good thing to try and accommodate each one in their way and recognize their struggles and their strengths. Help them out in their weak areas and play up to their strengths. Be forgiving of one another and considerate to their different viewpoints and ideas or methods of accomplishing our missions.

Life isn't always all black and white, off and on, or binary (ones and zeroes). We often try to paint others in a corner or box of our making, and they don't usually fit. When that happens, we cause friction and problems. We should try to accept everyone for who they are and put away our preconceptions and prejudices. It's not always easy, and it can take a long time to achieve, but it can be done.

Each of us has our strength's and weaknesses, and it isn't fair to take advantage of other's weaknesses to make ourselves look better. Life doesn't mean that for us to succeed, others have to fail. The better way is to work on our weaknesses and encourage the success of others in their unique style. If you see someone is weak in speaking on the radio, find an excellent way to help them with positive advice and constructive criticism. Being negative and tearing them down for their inadequacy doesn't help them get better and only serves to discourage them and make you look like an awful person.

When you see another person make that extra effort to get a piece of critical information that can help our responding units, be sure to point that out and offer some praise for going above and beyond the base duties, that's a win for the whole team and serves to build better rapport and teamwork. It also helps to foster happiness in our work and lives, and that makes us better people, too.

Relationship building at work is important and it's a big goal of mine. I want to foster positive relationship building between myself and you and between you and everyone here. With better relationships, we can be happier individuals. The most powerful contributor to personal happiness is the quality of our relationships.

Just like those fountain pens that are all unique and have their way of writing, so too are we all unique and have our styles. None are good or bad, but just different. If we reserve our judgment of others and see them for who they are, we can become happier people all around. Selfishness has no place that makes it worthwhile for anyone. When we leave the ego behind, the preconceptions behind, the prejudices behind and stop trying to fit people into our black and white boxes, only then can we be free ourselves.

They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of "I," "me," and "mine."

-Bhagavad Gita