02 / The letter about the ballpoint pen
Read aloud: 1:21
Reading time: 1:02
Words: 245
Characters: 1619
I’ve just emptied another ballpoint pen writing my morning pages.
When I started writing them in 2024, after reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I hated writing by hand because it was too slow.
Because my hand couldn’t keep up with my head.
Or a keyboard.
Not to mention my addiction to Cmd + Z.
I used to love writing by hand when I was a child.
I could spend hours experimenting with my handwriting.
What should it look like?
How small could it be?
How round?
How curly?
How simple?
I went through phases.
Tiny handwriting.
Cursive handwriting.
Italic handwriting.
Block letters.
Chubby letters.
Slim letters.
I decorated school books, notes, bags, anything with a surface.
Turns out hurry is an efficient way to turn against the things you love.
I wonder what else doesn’t survive hurry.
Reading slowly.
Daydreaming.
Noticing.
Letting an idea stay open.
Playing.
Doing nothing.
Not because it doesn’t matter.
Because it doesn’t perform.
Writing by hand does not make me faster.
There is no shortcut in it.
No delete button.
There are mistakes.
Crossed-out words.
Bad grammar.
But it slows me down enough for the thoughts with no job to show up.
In her 2017 New Year’s address, Queen Margrethe of Denmark suggested that we try doing something unnecessary.
Something there is no need for.
Something pointless.
“I think it is important to have experiences that appeal to our senses, something that inspires our imagination, that stimulates the mind, and that can enlarge our world.
That is not so pointless after all.”
Another empty ballpoint pen.
Hurrah.
/Puk
Morning pages 26/06/2026
First morning pages 09/06/2024
