I Hold in my Hand

I hold in my hand a Dixon Ticonderoga HB #2 soft pencil.

I roll it slowly with my fingers, turn it end to end, and am awestruck.

A cursory examination shows it to be 37 picas long, sharpened at one end to a point, exposing a black material that I will assume, for now, to be a form of carbon/graphite. The opposite end is capped with a small tubular section of a pink, flexible artificial substance the same diameter as the pencil and attached by a tubular piece of crimped metal - aluminum I suppose. The eraser is said to be able to erase any thoughts or ideas unwittingly or accidentally committed to paper by the pencil. A useful feature, at times

The slender wooden shaft, milled from a billet of clear, rosy-tinted incense cedar, is flawless in its integrity. The shape and balance, the feel and heft, are perfection personified.

I’ve been led to understand that it is the only implement or device Santa will use when compiling his ‘lists’.

Not being a 100% Luddite I have elected to use a keyboard and computer to compose this note but will continue to use a Dixon Ticonderoga HB #2 soft pencil for all important ruminations.