And Another Thing...

...that we can easily do without, that is, replace with something reusable that we all used to use.... Another great gift, that'll make them think of you every time they use it! I wasn't planning on a gift guide this year. It just so happens that a lot of these thing I am mentioning right now happen to make awesome presents!

PENS! How many pens do you go through in a year? How many do you lose in a year? Can't even think of the number? I save pens forever, but then when I go to use them after some time, they are dead. I LOVE pens, I love calligraphy, I like writing by hand. What's as cool as a beautiful fountain pen? It's a lost art. Why? Because we can't be bothered with ink anymore? Because... why because? Ink is too messy? Not really. Why is this worth the millions of pens that wash up from the ocean?

Washed ashore in Australia

I'm trying to make sense of all this "progress." Help me out here. How are we better off using plastic cheap throw-away-but-never-really-away pens? It's the little things. Because little things add up to and contribute to big things. Attitudes, even. When the littlest things are insignificantly disposable, it just goes right up the chain. If we have to care for and maintain the littler things, maybe bigger things mean more too. Does that make sense? When we have to stop and THINK... when convenience doesn't rule our lives... maybe.


I've said it before, I'll say it again. We need to value things more. So maybe the gift of a really decent pen that has a refillable life, rather than a throw-away destiny, is a really cool thing. I'm looking around at my "stuff"... especially as we prepare to move, and I thinking about what I can replace with something other than plastic. It's really not hard at all. I went somewhere the other day where I knew I would need a pen. I brought 3. ALL of them failed. Next time I am in the market for a pen, I will get one I can refill instead of replace. Same with my razor. My hangers. My kitchen stuff. All of it. If you are already doing that in your world, yay! Now start with these great things for this holiday season. Buy local and replace some things for your friends and family.

Hey, they don't even have to realize what you are doing. You can be all slick and sly about it. It's OK. We'll know.