Be like a pencil

source: “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:

‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’

My reflection on this passage

I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

I like the Portuguese Novelist Paulo Coelho. He has written above 20 novels. Alchemist is the novel that I like most. He gives lot of philosophical notions through his novels. In his novel – like the flowing river – a grandma is talking to her grandson before he begins his school. The grandma says to the boy be like a pencil. And I would like to give you the same message to you today. before you begin this scholastic year.

What are the specialties of a pencil? Can you imagine?

1. Pencil is humble: how? It is ready to correct itself and it carries an eraser. What is written by pen can not be easily erased. 'The pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’ An Indian guru says: a pot even if it is golden pot which has kept upside down cannot gather water. If your head is full with pride you cannot learn knowledge.

2. Pencil is symbol of sharpening : it has to be sharpened once a while. "Now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper". What we have to sharpen ? our concentration. In Mahabharata, the disciples under Dhronacharya are learning archery. He asks the first disciple what you see. He says I see a tree, leaves, branches and a bird. Get out of here. The next one says the same. And here comes, the great Arjuna. Guru asks the same question. He says I see the eye of a bird. Shoot, the guru said.. If you have lot of things in mind like, love, internet, games, drugs you cannot concentrate.

3. Pencil is a symbol of dedication: writing and writing the pencil disappear from the world. Acquiring knowledge is not for oneself: it is for the service of human family. 'It always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’

4. Pencil is symbol of breaking out of one’s self: 'What really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’ Pencil has two parts: hard wooden part and graphite inside. The hard part has to be broken out to be a pencil. In the same way grandma says in the school he has to come out of himself. Your ego has to be broken out of yourself. Narcissism- I, my, mine….

5. 'You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’ Pencil cannot write by itself, it needs a hand to write. We call that hand as God. Once somebody asked St. Boneventure where did you get this knowledge? He said pointing to a crucifix. This is the source my knowledge.

6. I would like to add one more thing that is hard work. Great men achieved wisdom by hard work.