For many years my husband and I worked in the same building on different floors and in different departments for an organization. Our work overlapped on numerous projects so I attended meetings in his office. Although I never intended to, I would often walk away with a pen that had been sitting on his desk. As a result every few weeks he would come up to my office and check the drawer of my desk to retrieve the ones belonging to him. He knew which ones they were because he would buy a box of very distinctive pens that everyone came to know unmistakably as his. I wasn’t the only offender, in fact this is an issue in many places, but I will admit I am likely one of the worst.
I always like to have a pen in my hand. When I am sitting and reading I am holding a pen. While I am working at my computer a pen sits next to the keyboard. Even when I am doing public speaking I always hold a pen in my hand at the podium. Why? I don’t know. It’s not like I am making edits at that point yet as I speak you will spot a pen in my right hand. If we seem to be short of pens in the house my husband will encourage me to empty my purse and sure enough I will come across a half dozen or more…as I feign surprise…claiming I just don’t know how they got there.
In the last number of days Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s famous phrase written for a play performed in 1839 has been referred to a tremendous amount: “the pen is mightier than the sword.” In response to the phrase at the time, literacy critic Edward Sherman Gould wrote that Bulwer “had the good fortune to do what few men can hope to do: he wrote a line that is likely to live for ages.”
Indeed it has. But even prior to playwright Bulwer’s use of the phrase, the idea existed in the thoughts of several predecessors including 7th century Assyrian sage Ahiqa who said “the word is mightier than the sword”, and Greek playwright Euripides who wrote “the tongue is mightier than the blade.” William Shakespeare in the second act of Hamlet stated “many rapiers are afraid of goose quills.”
The ordinary, everyday pen has become a unifying symbol in vigils in many corners of the world as citizens stand in quiet defiance that the pen will not be silenced in the wake of yet another horrific act of terror. It is poignant in its imagery but hard to reconcile with the reality of what the world has witnessed.
The internet has vastly changed how we communicate and how a lot of transactions are undertaken, yet some of the most important things we do in life still require a signature completed with a ballpoint pen--signing a marriage certificate, obtaining a mortgage, or putting our name to a new job contract. What we put on paper is a declaration; I declare my desire to enter this marriage, I choose to take on this mortgage, I want to work for this company. Important statements. What can be accomplished by a pen is not to be underestimated.
But the power of the pen needs to be protected. We cannot treat freedom of expression as carelessly as we treat the pens that helped craft it--tossed haphazardly or unprotected until needed like the ones at the back of a drawer or in the bottom of a backpack. We can’t just shrug our shoulders and wonder how we got here. Human lives have been the cost in the securing of the freedom so it is paramount that human lives not be taken in the expression of it.
Was Bulwer correct in declaring the might of the pen? That’s still up to us to determine. But we need to remember this: as much as we may disagree or take offense to what has already been written, we must allow freedom of expression to exist or we risk losing out on all the words that have yet to be written. And those are the ones that could very well help us turn the page. That’s my outlook.
