A Short Pencil Maxim Meets Scared Child and Honest Joan

Notes From the Prairie: I Wonder #6

Photo by Mohamed Marey on Unsplash

I was chatting with a few friends recently (I’ll call them Anne, Beth, and Diane). When I asked the name of a passerby, Ann said, “I should know his name, but it’s not coming to me right now.”

That, of course, raised the specter of memory loss.

Beth said, “I have lapses like that all the time. I asked my husband if he thought I had dementia, and he told me ‘No, that’s normal.’”

Diane comforted Beth, “I’ve heard that if you have dementia, you don’t realize it. So if you are afraid you have it, Beth, you most likely don’t.”

I chimed in on how to tell the difference, “I’ve read that if you forget where you put the keys, it’s normal. If you forget what the keys are for, you might have dementia.”

We chuckled together and moved on to a different topic before I had time to quote my favorite maxim on the subject: A short pencil is better than a long memory.

I’ve quoted that maxim often in the past decade.

And I use a pencil or pen even more often than I quote that proverb. A grocery list lies next to a pen on my kitchen counter. I write a daily to-do list at the beginning of each day. I carry a small notebook in my purse or my used-at-home fanny pack, ready to jot myself a memory jogger within a few seconds if I think I’ll need it.

The top priority item on today’s to-do list is to draft a new column. I skim the 74 column ideas I have jotted down in recent months. One of them is the short pencil, long memory maxim. Perfect. I wonder, Who first said it? What meanings do people attach to it? Is it true—even in our high tech era?

I research the answers on my laptop.

• The maxim’s origin is uncertain, but is often attributed to Coach Jack Lengyel, who took over the Marshall University football program after 37 of Marshall’s football players and 8 staff members had died in an airplane crash. Hmm. Apparently Lengyel considered writing down team plays and strategies important.

• People use this saying as a metaphor for the idea that writing something down is a better way to remember than relying on memory alone. Listed uses include not only making lists, but taking notes at seminars, penciling notes into pages of music to make learning it easier, for journalists doing interviews, and for daily diaries. The general principle: a written record is always more reliable than memory alone. That’s comforting. I’ve come to use writing things down as a way to adjust to an older memory that has a occasional slippage in the gears, but online I find it recommended as a memory aid device for everyone.

• As I search online to learn more about pens and pencils in our high-tech world, I predict the answer. I think it will tell me that high-tech records work even better. My son dictates his grocery list to Alexa. I use Google Assistant to immediately record momentary writing ideas on my cellphone. Technology works even faster and better than a pencil.
  The online information surprises me. Yes, creating a recording is faster than writing with a pencil. But apparently it is not better for helping me remember. Writing by hand is. Yes, as I discovered in school before the computer era, taking notes helped me to remember course material—and also gave me material to review in preparing for tests. But, apparently, taking notes with pen or pencil is more effective than keystroking. Online materials recommend it as more effective for such activities as learning basic math and for students taking notes in school.

Oh, help! My Scared Child is worried. If I cite this material, I’ll be seen a dinosaur longing for the good old days before the meteors fell. Readers will wish meteor showers on me. I don’t deserve that. I am thrilled with Google Assistant and my laptop.

I consider some more. I don’t use technology like a student learning new material. I use it for productivity and to help remember lists. I also use it to create and edit the flow of words that will eventually become a column or chapter.

When I take notes of a lecture, sermon, or Zoom meeting, I actually do it by hand, though. I’ve never asked myself why. I’m just more comfortable doing that.

Have I instinctively realized that I remember better if I process it by hand?

I am starting to feel really proud of my choices when Honest Joan leans in over my right shoulder and speaks up. Think again about your reasons for these choices. Don’t give yourself undue credit.

I hang my head, study the floor, and answer her slowly, Well, I don’t take a laptop with me to lectures or worship because my Scared Child is afraid people would think I’m showing off my computer skills. I also leave it home because it is a pain to take along and set up. And switching back and forth between screens during Zoom meetings is just too demanding. . .

Joan smiles, pats my back, and says, Good job. I knew you could get to the true story.

But when she heads outdoors into the sun, my thoughts continue. Isn’t there some truth to my choosing a pen for taking notes? I have felt it was more effective, even though I didn’t consciously identify higher retention as the reason.

Perhaps retention of material could be a small part of the reason I thought writing by hand was more effective.

Yes, yes, I think it could. . . .Well, possibly. . . .

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Carol Van Klompenburg is a writer living in Pella, Iowa. She has a BA in English and an MA in Theater Arts — and is available for reading performances of her work. Readers can contact her publicly by commenting on this Substack or privately at carolvk13@gmail.com. By January 12, she expects to receive multiple copies of her latest book, A World in a Grain of Sand: Lively Little Stories of Household Stuff. Stay tuned.