The Quintessential

The Quintessential

To me, this is a fun word.  Not only is it long and sounds like you know what you’re talking about, but if you actually do know what you’re talking about, you wielding a powerful concept.  If you were to look in a dictionary (or google) you would find that “quintessential” means “representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.” 

So here is an example:

You might not notice anything funny about this picture, especially considering how often ones like it surround you, but there is an example of the quintessential here.  Why is there a checkbook with a fountain pen on top?  Do you own a fountain pen?  Have you ever used one?  If you do own one, do you make out checks with it?  For some reason, the fountain pen is, possibly subconsciously, our quintessential notion of what a pen is.  Ignoring that 99% percent of all the pens you’ve ever used in your life are roller, gel, or ballpoint pens, the fountain pen represents what all pens aspire to be. 

Here is another example.

This, the brush, the cup, the shaving soap, the straight razor, is the picture of quintessential shaving for men.  But who do you know who shaves with a brush, soap, and straight razor?  Granted there are a few, but not many. 

Record players, gin martinis, straight razors, fountain pens, barber shops, big band night clubs where the manager walks around in a Humphrey Bogart style dinner jacket, these all subconsciously sit on the list of the quintessential in my mind.  Looking at the list, it is clear I should have been an adult in the 1940s, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.

The most perfect version of something is more often than not entirely unattainable.  So here’s a challenge.  Sign your checks with a fountain pen.  Start a record collection.  Get a straight razor and a brush.  Do something quintessential. 

Life is too short to obviously resign yourself to these:

The Writer's March

This month, I began to host a writer's challenge, called "The Writer's March".  This challenge was meant to get writers to write more consistently about the things that they are actually thinking and want to write about.

From the very first time I put out the challenge, there has been a buzz of excitement in the air.  People genuinely want any excuse to write more.  It is currently five days in and there have been nine posts by five people.

Although the group is small, I think the people who are participating will see it though to the end.  31 days of some kind of consistent writing is not an easy task, but there is the feel of commitment that makes me believe it will be a success.

In the time we live in, where social media can connect you to virtually everyone on the planet through series of relationships, why not take advantage of that medium to do some kind of good?  There is always the danger that great ideas, when made widely accessible, will become trite and meaningless next to everything else that is floating around in the world.  But I would rather risk failure of something great than never attempt anything of substance at all.

You touch more people than you know.  Do not let that knowledge or ability go to waste because you were afraid of failure.