It was a few of us getting together for the first time in over a year and a half.
Each of us were double vaxxed, boosted and seated outdoors at this restaurant, none of us wore a mask. In fact, no one at the other spread out tables was wearing a mask.
The majority of the initial conversation was Covid virus related. Sons or daughters who had weddings delayed or cancelled, or just got married without any hoopla. Close friends or relatives who died from the virus. All very depressing stuff.
This one story is the one that had me sit upright and ask questions.
The grade school teacher in our group mentioned this story in passing as she was discussing the constantly changing rules for remote learning and in person classes. Her two first grade classes did not know (we are talking about each child in each class) what a pencil was!
She was going to talk about the pencil sharpener and rotating who would empty the shards each week.
Didn’t you love that smell of the pencil sharpener when you opened it up and emptied it.
Now these youngsters used iPads, or a Surface and knew how to use an iPhone or an android device YET THEY REALLY DIDN’T KNOW what a pencil was!
Think about it.
Pencils are used for more than basic writing.
Have you ever placed a clean unlined paper over a coin and softly sideways run the tip of the pencil back and forth to eventually reveal the image of the coin on the page! Now that’s fun! Sorry it’s not tik tok!
Seriously, if no one writes or draws by hand any longer, what will happen if the power goes out for days or a week or more? If no one ever learned to write or draw by hand, how will they keep the story alive about what happened?
Is it possible the pencil will go extinct?
Does it really matter?
What do you think?
Think about the question rather than slam me, the messenger.
What else, like a pencil, will be next on the soon to be extinct list?
Mitch Tublin is an entrepreneur and founder of Wenkroy International LLC, a boutique consulting company with a main focus of adding value to people. Through speaking, training and coaching clarity is achieved and distractions are reduced. People now focus on what matters most. My passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their career and business.
