Today, two years in the pandemic, I think it is safe to say that we are all craving small pleasures. While nothing will be able to replace the time lost, there is something to be said about being able to appreciate things a little more now than pre-Covid.
That’s actually how I got into fountain pens. Spending more time at my desk, I realized I enjoyed writing more by hand when I was using a luxury pen. My handwriting developed, my thoughts flowed easier. I took time to enjoy the process, not just the finished product of whatever it was I was writing down. There was intentionality behind my act that couldn’t be replicated with a ballpoint, or even a rollerball. There was something new about writing with fountain pens. It’s been an exciting journey, I’ll say that much for it.
With Omicron still surging across the globe, I feel a sense of déjà vu. So now, you may be at your desk again, wondering why you should invest in a quality pen this year.
A Global Community
If you’re reading this on Inkstable, then it is likely you have at least a passing fancy of pens. But, once you lift the veil, one will find just how passionate this community really is. Once you begin to follow pen accounts and read pen blogs, you are automatically initiated into a world of people who truly care about the wellbeing of the industry as a whole – and you, as a person, too. To own a luxury pen is to purchase a ticket into a network of like-minded individuals. And, right now with all of us still stuck at home, community is everything.
Buying Heritage
In an even broader sense of community, one is able to appreciate the heritage of a brand through their craftsmanship. With pens, this is especially true. When owning a Montblanc or Montegrappa, you are able to truly connect with the generations before you who have perfected their technique to build exquisite products that you, today, a century later, get to enjoy. How amazing is that?
Perfecting Your Own Craft
The beauty of a quality pen is that it does a lot of the work for you. These pens are designed to be used and, because of this, every component of the pen has the writer in mind. For me, it’s not just about the brand name when buying a quality pen, but the trust I have in the brand that they have built a pen I’ll enjoy using. The balance of the pen, the shape, the weight, the ink flow. All of these things matter when writing – and luxury brands, simply, do it better.
For me, I am seeking out simple joys now more than ever. I know that part of finding the small joys I spoke about earlier have come owning better pens, and appreciating the community and heritage that comes with it. I hope that you, too, get to experience the joy I have had, in the middle of the pandemic, of simply sitting at my desk, opening my notebook to a new page, and seeing the ink well up and flow off my pen.
It really is a beautiful moment.