Now most of you troglodytes give little thought to your pens. Some of you think the fact that the occasional survival of a blue Bic Stic in the washing machine is a feature. Many more of you probably barely use analog writing tools at all. You probably borrow, lend, lose, and trash cheap peasant sticks ballpoint pens quite often. In this case, the value of a pen is less than a dollar, and the lifespan of that pen is weeks or months.
I use fountain pens. Since these are easily refillable with bottled ink, they can last a very long time. Now there’s nothing deeply spiritual or edifying in my fountain pen hobby itself, but a couple pens from my collection demonstrate how these writing implements help me reflect on life, beauty, and significance.
Montblanc 149
I have a Montblanc 149 that I picked up a while back for a decent price that was made in the late 1980s. I love writing with it, but that’s not why I’m writing about it now. Montblanc by the 1980s had become a sort of status symbol in the corporate world. In the dwindling days of the Cold War with its booming American economy, Montblanc pens point to the economic success of the capitalist west over and against the communist east. A little marker on that pen drive this home. On the band above the clip, you can find the letters “W GERMANY.” This pen was made in West Germany, an entity that only existed in opposition to communist East Germany. My pen—older than I am—reminds me every day that I’m thankful not to live in a commie country. My pen reminds me of the carnage socialism wreaks on society and individuals. Now there are many pervasive problems in the intricacies of our corporate capitalism in America, no doubt, but as far as the broad system under which we can try to build a better society, I’m thankful we get to start with markets over command and control every day. In other words, my pen reminds me to have perspective that many of the problems I face every day are first world problems not real problems.
Pelikan 140
I also have another pen from West Germany, but from what I can tell from the markings on it, this pen was made in 1954 (if I’m wrong it was made no later than 1964). That makes this pen not only older than me, but also older than both my parents! A person born in 1954 has hit retirement age. This pen has not. It’s not really that old in the scope of world history, but 60ish years is a long time for any human enterprise, let alone a pen.1 At the Together for the Gospel Conference in 2018, they had a giveaway for the longest serving pastor in the audience . That turned out to be John MacArthur, who started at Grace Community Church in 1969. This pen is older than what could very well be the single longest pastorate in the world right now. The lifespan of the pen puts our own fleeting mortality in perspective.
With this kind of perspective on human life (“A 4.5 inch piece of plastic and metal can be useful longer than I can”), something I find particularly futile and irritating is the polarization and bickering I see not just in America but among American Christians, especially online. By looking at the leading Christian online publications and blogs, twitter, and other social media, you quickly realize that Christians are continually in arguments about the latest controversy of the month, which invariably is related to some longstanding issue of how the church in America has always been wrong on X or Y point. With an astounding lack of self-awareness, Christians continually engage in “the biggest fight for the gospel of our lifetime” or “the defining sin of the American church” or some other such gross and obvious exaggeration. When I think about how long a Pelikan 140 could last,2 I can’t imagine why Christians with almost identical theologies decide to engage in twitter spats over ministry method or application or the latest Christian book or some other piffling trifle. Instead I end up wanting to think about things that have major lasting significance. It’s hard to argue about finer points of church governance, for example, when polls show most professing Christians don’t understand the Trinity, and thereby likely don’t understand the statement: “Christ is the head of the church.” It’s usually silly to get into an argument about the accuracy of specific English Bible translations if both parties don’t read the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts behind those translations. In the end, it’s my fountain pens that make me want to disconnect from this stupid internet and go completely analog.3 All this to say, you too should get some fountain pens, and reflect with me on the Trinity as well.
1 Let the troglodyte recall that he has no pens older than 1 year that are still functional.
2 And there are pens far older than the Pelikan 140 that remain functional to this day.
3 I usually now draft these blog posts by hand. This particular draft sat in a notebook for several months before I committed it here to the blog.
Citizens & Sons 