…from the Lost & Found Files

(Circa 2003)

Throwing Our Pens at Sportscasters 

For those of us who are very work-oriented, pens are an important part of our daily lives.  In my line of work as a television news reporter, my pen serves as a vital function for which I craft words and phrases into an interesting story line for viewers.  It’s not only a way to express a topic, but a way for me to take notes and gather important information for the news.  Today, for example, my pen and I got together to jot down scattered thoughts from a Major in the Army.  He told me about how his battalion is now on ‘Status Alert,” meaning that at any point in time, his unit could be called up to serve in our war against Iraq.   The Major gave me a bountiful amount of information that I could not have remembered once I got back to my desk, so I wrote it all down on my trusty reporter’s notebook with my trusty Zebra pen.

            A little later in the day, once I was basically finished with my work, I was sitting in the newsroom when our sportscaster, Shawn, walked by.  I playfully threw my pen his way.  I should have known that sports guys have played sports before, and that the throw of my pen was a meager tool, much like a football or baseball, for him to catch.  He continued to walk, pen in hand, toward the studio door.  I hopped up and tried to wrestle with him to get my pen back.  And to my dismay, he won the battle and kept on walking.

            Haven’t we all had to deal with bullies before?  Sure, it’s one thing for a junior high student to deal with that on a daily basis.  But it’s quite another for two professionals to fight over a silly little pen.  It’s silly, of course.  But important, I would surely say so. 

            My pen is not just a tool.  My pen is symbolic of so much more than just something for which to write.  We can all testify that the little things in our lives mean much more than what they actually are.  The pen in this case is representative of a soul, a piece of yourself, or a person who can be your best friend.  In jest, I threw a pen his way to be playful.  I gave a piece of myself, a piece of my personality, because I was having fun.  When he took the pen, it was as if a bully were picking on me just like a junior high kid.  Sometimes we win things and sometimes we lose things.  But we have to be careful whom we give a piece of ourselves to.  Not everyone can be trusted as we are sometimes led to believe.  An object as small as a pen can be important to one person, while another may think of it as an opportunity to ‘playfully’ steal.  Shawn may have not meant any harm, but I think it’s a lesson we can learn from.   Don’t throw away your pen because it may be something you’ll never get back.