I, Pencil Response

“I, Pencil” by Leonard E. Read is basically about the in depth history of the pencil. Where most of the products come from, how it’s used, and how the everyday person may take it for granted. The average person doesn’t know how a pencil is made; therefore many don’t realize how many hours of labor and how many people it takes to make this everyday item. Many may not know that that the wood from a pencil comes from the cedar in California, the graphite is mined in Ceylon, and the clay the graphite is mixed with comes from Mississippi. A pencil is a very complex object. The pencil is sent all over jus to make school and office supplies, even if the only ones who appreciate it are first graders. The pencil wants us to realize that there isn’t a mastermind behind it, that there is a mystery at work.

A pencil is a mystery to many, when you look at a pencil all you may see is “some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser”. The pencil is just seen for its outer features, not the hard work that’s put into it. Even though the pencil is just seen for its finished product and not for the different roles there are in making it, the pencil believes in one thing. He believes “There isn’t a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how”. The pencil feels as if he isn’t the motivation for the many people that contribute to his making, but it all has to do with what skill you have. He also thinks that each man who has a hand in making him exchanges his skill for something in return…and its most likely not a pencil. What grabbed me as I was reading this paper was that the pencil believed there was a “higher power” actually controlling the making of a pencil. He states that “Only God can make a tree. Why do we agree with this? Isn’t because we realize that we ourselves could not make one?” I agree with this because many humans believe we have a lot of control over some things, when in reality a lot of things are out of our control. He also shows us that “I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my testimony as testimony that this is a practical faith”. From this last sentence of the paper, I got that something as simple as a pencil can have an effect on our faith, and how we view certain things