recollections and collections

I've lost 2 important pens recently. They weren't too expensive, or really beautiful, but they were important because they were gifts.

I'm sure I'm not alone in my value system: that things, in themselves, aren't worth so much to the public or the market, but are invaluable to those who owned them.

I broke the nib of a Parker my Aunty gave me for my graduation from medical school in 2004: it's limited edition, the nib is non-standard, and it'll cost more than a brand new great quality Parker for me to replace it. I searched long and hard and the cheapest replacement is 500 Euros, located in Spain.

The second, was a high school graduation present my mum gave me. I still remember shopping with her at Myer that day. It was a fine silver Parker Sonnet.

I am very sad that I had mishandled and misplaced these possessions. I had dreams that I'd use these enduring tools well for the sake of serving in public health, or in note-taking and reflections. I had always wanted my possessions to last: they had become like personal relations to me.

But then I have a Christian perspective to my missing pens. An eschatological view point, so to speak. Because I am convinced that nothing, however real or treasured, lasts. Not even "true love" lasts. It's clear that at the Resurrection, all things that are to last undergo a radical transformation, like a seed that falls, dies, but rises into a fruitful plant, glorious compared to its previous state. All things, including our bodies, minds, even our innermost selves are perfected by none other than God HImself, who raises the dead to life.

What does this make of my pens or possessions? They certainly have a physical nature that will not last into the next age. I certainly won't "miss" them, neither functionally or relationally: I will have other means of drawing, creating, writing if these ways of thinking and communicating are needed for the next age. I will also be comforted that no death enters into the realm of Heaven, that also means no losing of loved ones or loved things. There is no hint of separation or decay at the great reunion with the Creator, Judge and Saviour. That is great comfort.

For now, I've bought a Lamy, a functional, durable and cheap fountain pen to use as my writing tool of choice. Of course I shall become attached to it: it's the sentiment stuff I was made of and have not much control over. For deep within me, I have a strong sense of being faithful with what I am given, but more importantly, having things, people, goals, aspirations, projects - things material or abstract - that will accompany me into Eternity. I like lasting things, it's a deep yearning which I find concordant with a biblical eschatology. I'd rather be long sighted than not. Now that leads to the danger of me, a mere human, not concentrating on the present. But that can be the subject of another blog.