Digital Fountain Pen?

I am looking through a box of memorabilia and discover my grandfather’s fountain pens. They were handed down to my father and then to me. With a little loving care, the pens could be coaxed back to life and I could hand them down to my children—if I had any. But, I am the last of my line—and who writes with a fountain pen these days? My family writing instruments will be given away to someone who would appreciate them. I cannot bring myself to throw them out. I know, I know—attachment.

I wrote with a newer generation of fountain pens at one point in my life, and I still take them out and apply some scribbles to paper. It is a ritual that is lost on a generation; the focus of watching fluid flow onto a surface, forming into cursive letters, reflecting on the space created. They do not even teach cursive in many schools these days. Although I now write this on a laptop computer, I am fully cognizant that it draws upon a different place in my mind and body.

Nevertheless, I will continue to use this laptop because I am lazy, and do not want to type my handwritten notes after the fact. Still, I feel something is missing, and I am somewhat saddened. I think there is a part of our humanness lost in the keyboard and screen. It seems we are compelled to accelerate all our processes, leaving no time to deal with a leaky fountain pen. I am heartened to know fountain pens will probably outlast all our digital devices. 

Just think of the human ingenuity involved in creating a writing instrument that is not thrown away when it runs out of ink. You just uncap a bottle of fluid, dip in the pen, and use the science of vacuum to suck up more ink. Then you continue writing, repeating a ritual that our ancestors practiced every day. And the pen can be refurbished with a new nib when necessary.

I suppose this is why I still use a fountain pen once in awhile—and carve wood with chisels, play a guitar, get my hands dirty in the garden, and walk in the wilds. I do not think AI will ever replace this kind of experience. I reflect about Buddha sitting quietly on the ground as the laws of the universe unfolded in his mind. He did not need a Large Hadron Collider (look it up on your digital device), or need to type up his results.