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: