Thoughts to Be Thought

Well, as you can see I go for these long periods of time where I don't update, apart from the usual business of life, they are usually due to my visits home. This time around I was home for Easter Break, so while I had planned to be a faithful blogger, alas, I was not. :) However, there is grace and mercy for every part of life and so I must move on...


As I have mentioned before and as I have been told multiple times by various friends, we are to remember to enjoy the simple things in life. For me, these simple things can end up being very, well...simple. Whether it be receiving a card in the mail, enjoying beautiful weather, or getting a new journal of some sort (I know, but it's part of the family lineage and schooling), I tend to enjoy these simple things immensely. Well, one of these simple joys has to be when I open a new Moleskin. There is just something about these fascinating little creations that inspire. The simplicity of the black outer-covering, bound to the cream-colored, smooth pages that is postively astounding. According to the officialy Moleskine website:

"Moleskine is the legendary notebook that the European artists and intellectuals who made twentieth-century culture used: from Henri Matisse to the turn-of-the-century Parisian avant-garde, from Louis Férdinand Céline to Ernest Hemingway. Writer-traveler Bruce Chatwin picked up this tradition and made it famous.

A simple black rectangle with squared or lined pages, endleaves held by an elastic band, an inside pocket for loose sheets, a binding in 'moleskine' which gives it its name, this trusty, pocket-size traveling companion guarded notes, stories, thoughts and impressions before they turned into the pages of beloved books.

Bruce Chatwin used to buy his moleskine at a Paris stationery shop in Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie. He always stocked up on them before going off on one of his journeys. He had a ritual set up over the years -before using them, he numbered the pages, wrote his name and at least two addresses in the world with the promise of a reward in case they got lost. "Losing my passport was the least of my worries, losing a notebook was a catastrophe".

Now, the Moleskine is back again. It can go back to being a witness passing from one pocket to another and continue the adventure. Its still-blank pages will tell the rest."

It seems as though everytime I see this book I am peculiarly inspired to write, to express, to record. Though this may seem a peculiarity to some, one that only belongs to a person who is a History and English major, yet I believe it is not so. While some may write in their recordings, others may express in their own ways, which may not entail pages and pages of words. So, upon encountering one of my many bound wonders, more often than not I grab my beloved pen, inscribed with a "B", and begin a quest...

Unfortunately, many forget the power of words, but as Frank Lloyd Wright once quipped, "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." Especially in a day and age where our society is predominantly ruled by chess-match of politics and the words of its players, we must understand the difference that words can make. Looking back on history some of the greatest historical figures, such as Churchill understood the power of the ink and pen, the power of words to inspire men and exact change.

I only hope that more in my generation will recover this much needed necessity of recording ideas. Though our ideas may never transform our world in our lifetime, may we understand that some day, one person may read them, one person that may make a difference...

May we truly understand that...The greatest ideas in the world mean nothing if they never get outside the thinker's head...