It definitely left a mark on me.
Indelible. Now that’s a pretty good word. It describes something that is “not able to be forgotten or removed.”
There have been several things in my life that have left an indelible impression on me. And certainly, throughout history, we have known many indelible events. One of the most recent being the assault on the United States Capitol by Trump supporters, and January 6, 2021.
Those things, those events, are permanent. They are enduring and ineffaceable.
But these events could be anything. They might be happy or sad. A wedding. Or a funeral.
Some of the things, which leave unfading memories (at least, in my life) are surprisingly small. Like the first time I cared for a sick mouse when I was young and the subsequent death of that mouse. Or a moment in our childhood kitchen, when my brother and I poured coffee into a Coke bottle to fool my tricky sister.
The way our minds and our memories work is a mystery to me.
Sometimes, we have tools to help us remember, though. And one of those things is the Indelible Pencil.
It was on this date, July 10, 1866, that the Indelible Pencil was patented by Edson P. Clark, Northampton, Massachusetts. Ironically, there is not much information on him floating around in the world. His pencil made their marks, but apparently, he did not.
I found his Civil War Draft Registration, stating that he was born in 1832 and was single and living in Northampton, Massachusetts, on July 1, 1863.
Later, he would go on to open the Clark Indelible Pencil Co., there in Northampton. He made a lot of crayons and pencils that would mark on things and stay that way.
We are not much different than those pencils.
Depending on the surface of the situation, we leave our marks in many spaces throughout life. Think of all the many places we have been and the thousands of people we’ve come in contact with. In all the things we’ve done.
Some people in life leave a great impact on this world, from Mother Theresa to Donald Trump. From the Dali Lama to Adolf Hitler. Yet there are vestiges of varying degrees, coming from the likes of John Muir, or Anne Frank, or Abagail Adams. Still, further, there are those who have planted trees, worked for a charity, bandaged a scraped knee, knitted a scarf.
The thing about those indelible marks in our lives is not the size of the mark, but the kind of mark we leave. Are we touching the world with goodness and light? Or are we leaving behind pessimism and negativity? Kindness or derision?
We should always remember that whatever we touch and whatever we do all becomes a part of this place and the lives that are in it. Forever. Are we leaving it better with our indelible marks? Or are we not?
==========
“I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.”
― Beatrix Potter
=========
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
― Albert Schweitzer
=========
“We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.”
― Stephen King
========
Mark it up. Mark it up good.
