As I've stated several times over the years on Hive, I like fountain pens. They are much easier to write with than a ballpoint or pencil, requiring no pressure at all and therefore allowing longer writing sessions before reaching that point of hand fatigue, they are pleasing to look at, and they just all around give a great experience.
Fountain pens represent something of an old world economy, back when things were not as plentiful and quality was much more desired not only to give a better experience but also so that you could buy once and use for the rest of your life without the item breaking—and if it did break, there was a very healthy repair market. A good fountain pen fits in this. They aren't cheap, but the price buys you a high degree of quality that will both give you a better experience when you are using the pen and also allow the pen to last a lifetime or more.
Fountain pens also have the potential to be better for the environment. You will use a single pen for years which eliminates all the cheap pens that go into the trash after a few weeks, and you can also refill the ink, eliminating all the ballpoint ink refills that also end up in the trash. Not only do these two things make a fountain pen better for the environment, they also save us money in the long run. Many years ago when I was nervous about bringing my fountain pen to school (due to fears of losing it) I used a Uni gel pen in class. I would have to buy a refill once a week for a buck each, sometimes more because stores don't keep a lot of refills in stock so I'd be forced to buy a new pen sometimes, which was two bucks. That adds up to around $50 per year in refills, but probably a bit more because of the sometimes buying a new pen instead. Not a lot of money, but still. Now with my fountain pens I bought a 90ml bottle of permanent black ink for around $10 five years ago (well, ¥1000, but that was equal to $10 at the time). I am still using the bottle. $50*5 - $10 = $240. That's a pretty nice savings! It is almost gone come to think of it. I'll have to buy a new one soon.
Funny thing, though. The above is all ideal. But the reality is that for many people, they become addicted. Enter the problem of desire.
I am a member of a few fountain pen groups on Facebook. Groups and family posts are really the only reasons to still use that service. Anyway, every single day there will be multiple posts from members showing off new pens they bought, or new inks they bought, or their entire collection which is usually fairly large. Just yesterday I saw a post from a member showing six very expensive pens (total cost over $1000) and a message saying she had only started collecting fountain pens three weeks ago and was embarrassed that this was all she had collected so far.
All of the cost savings and eco good points to using fountain pens don't mean anything if one is going to start collecting them. In these fountain pen groups I am always shaking my head at the collecting I see. Some of the pens are beautiful, I agree, but what good are they when you own so many you can't possibly use them all? There is one fella you can see on YouTube who goes by the name of Figboot (his channel). He made one video showing his collection which is so big that it requires several shelves to hold all of them.
I don't mean to pick on fountain pen users. This collecting mentality exists everywhere. I'm not a gun person, but I have seen people from the US post photos of gun rooms packed full. Some rich people collect cars like stamps: Jay Leno famously has an entire warehouse for all his cars, which was at 180 cars the last I heard. Two generations ago in the US the trend was to collect commemorative plates. The joke at the time was old people would have entire rooms full of Elvis commemorative plates. We could go on and on. There is a fine line between collecting and compulsively gathering which leads to hoarding. If we aren't careful we can easily find ourselves on the wrong side of it.
Taken from an Ebay auction
I don't have to say that hoarding is becoming a serious problem in the West. As usual, we can see the worst examples of this in the US. It has become so endemic there that there are even TV shows about it that looks through storage garages and houses packed full of stuff. But it's not just in America. In Japan many old people only live in one or two rooms of their house because the other rooms are packed from ceiling to floor with stuff.
It's understandable. Buying things makes us feel good. There is a hit of dopamine when we get that package from Amazon and we like that. We want more. The thing we buy almost doesn't matter, it's the act of buying itself which we become addicted to. But then, like any drug, we start to become resistant to it and so we need more, and more, and more just to feel the same pleasure we did the first time.
Screengrab from the TV show Hoarders
There is a Buddhist parable. It goes as follows:
One day, after the Buddha and a group of monks finished eating lunch mindfully together, a farmer, very agitated, came by and asked, “Monks, have you seen my cows? I don’t think I can survive so much misfortune.”
The Buddha asked him, ‘What happened” and the man said, “Monks, this morning all twelve of my cows ran away. And this year my whole crop of sesame plants was eaten by insects!”
The Buddha said, “Sir, we have not seen your cows. Perhaps they have gone in the other direction.”
After the farmer went off in that direction, the Buddha turned to his Sangha and said, “Dear friends, do you know you are the happiest people on Earth? You have no cows or sesame plants to lose.” We always try to accumulate more and more, and we think these ‘cows’ are essential for our existence. In fact, they may be the obstacles that prevent us from being happy. Release your cows and become a free person. Release your cows so you can be truly happy.
I think that's a pretty good story. Now I'm not writing this to preach nor to encourage we give up all desire and live like monks. I'm just offering a view to think about.
I personally own a handful of pens, by the way. One was fairly expensive at around $300, a Pilot Custom 823. It is pretty much all I use; I've had it for around fifteen years and I have more than paid for it over that time with the savings in ink. It still works as well as the day I bought it. I also own a few cheap pens from China (via AliExpress) that I bought just to play with (they were a few bucks each) and I own a few more vintage pens that I bought cheap and restored myself.
The Pilot 823, taken from GouletPens.com
Whenever I do feel the urge to buy anything I usually write it down instead of acting on it. Later when the lust of buying has passed I will look at what I wrote and see how much I really want it. This simple act alone has probably saved me a lot of money over the years.
Do you do anything to curb desire in your own life? Or do you let your collecting run wild? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
(Title graphic made in PS by me from this image by Jordy Meow from Pixabay)
| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
