Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Letter To My Son-The Story Of My Handwriting



I am told that your personality can be deduced from your handwriting; that there is a branch of criminology that can investigate the personality of a criminal through forensics including literally reading between the lines of their writings!

While I will not differ or hold a contrary or counter view, however, from my own experience I always find that it is the quality of paper and pen I am using that determines what my handwriting will eventually be. If I encounter very some high grade smooth paper and a softer blotter underneath, my handwriting flourishes and borders on sexy calligraphy!, if on the other hand I end up with one of those extra thin points or tips on a thin paper, then my handwriting ends up being unimpressive.

By the way, I am a collector of pens for I seem to be on a never-ending search for the perfect tip and nib. Over the years, I have retained handwritten diaries not because I had anything important to say, but because I had just the right paper to write on. You can imagine my joy of 365 blank leafs to come back to every day. Talk of a daily fix!

And so it was the other day when we went to buy back-to-school stationery for the kids and I stumbled upon some disposable pens with the finest nib, I have ever encountered anywhere. I quickly picked up some black, blue, green and red pieces and headed to the counter. Each would cost Kshs. 350/= and here I was about to spend Kshs.1000/= on disposable ink pens. My children’s stationery for a whole term including boxes of pencils, colour pencils, erasers, sharpeners and other such stuff was only costing me about Kshs.1500 only.

The clerk at the till was obviously brighter than I was and was quick to offer unsolicited advice against buying disposable pens at that outrageous price. He thought it was more sensible to buy a fountain pen and lots of ink which is what I did. Unfortunately they only had school type plain but functional pens costing Kshs. 85. I grabbed one and later in the day tested it and loved it. It was taking me back to my fine handwriting! Don’t know what that had to do with my personality, but the pen was fine and the paper too.

So to test drive the pen, I wrote a letter to my son and earned myself a big bear hug and some mumbling of “ I love you too Dad”. The fruits of a good handwriting I guess…… 

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