Handwriting, Cursive, and the Flow of Life.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saad Shaikh (@eyeislife)

… the instrument plays itself. - J.S. Bach

    Writing, done, well is a way to be present. My experience with handwriting began in 2nd grade where, in a school in Los Angeles, I first introduced to cursive. We had to hold our pen properly, two fingers, not three, gracefully, and lightly, with the pencil just floating in your hand, and not squeezing the life out of the pencil, paper at the right slant and then practice, practice, practice. If you have callouses on your fingers from holding your writing instrument you are holding it wrong!

    I grew up with script and by the time I was in college at UCLA all my notes were in cursive, and then that carried on to medical school, and then private practice. In clinic, I began using a fountain pen, at first the disposable plastic ones with ink cartridges and then when the lids kept cracking because of how cheap the plastic was, I bought some used Parker 65 fountain pens from the 60s from Ebay for my clinic notes. Fountain pens require you to hold then pen just right, at the right slant, with a light touch, two fingers, and without too much pressure, and then there is not writing, the writing gets done by itself. It no coincidence, that being a retinal surgeon, we hold our instruments in the eye the same way. There’s a school of three point fingertip fixation and one for two point fingertip fixation of retinal instruments, but the former ends up with bulkier instruments and are built for surgeons who never learned to hold their pencils properly. Likewise, the scalpel, for more traditional surgeons is more effectively used and taught held with two point fixation, between finger and thumb and resting on the distal phalange of the middle finger – just like a fountain pen.  Script, language, pen, paper, all of it technologies and advances representing human culture and the human experience (very few were writing even a few hundred years ago) - and in awareness of that is beauty.  When you write well (or for surgeons cut well), it links life, paper (body), pen (knife), and “you” all together in the present moment – and if you’re lucky enough you might forget your "self" in the flow of it all. 

    I remember teaching my daughter cursive when she was in 3^rd grade. They had stopped teaching it in school by then. Cursive is faster than printing and use to be great when taking standardized essay exams. And it is just beautiful. So I was excited she knew how, but when she tried to use it as school later her teacher told her standardized tests now required her to print because the grader may not know how to read cursive!

    Here, in the first video I posted, I am using a German made Pelican nib, medium width, Porsche Design Stainless Steel Tecflex fountain pen, with Pilot Iroshizuku Bamboo Charcoal (take-sumi) fountain pen ink from Japan. This pen is lovely, well balanced and just heavy enough – like holding a well-made surgical instrument. You’re welcome to buy and try with this combination, the hyperlinks will take you to Amazon, but you can also start with something a lot less expensive like this Parker Jotter fountain pen which comes with a couple quick fill cartridges, You can even buy a Parker Converter if you want to draw up your own ink. I would start with a medium nib fountain pen as the ink flows more freely and glides easier across the paper. I’ve also posted a video of me drawing up the ink in to the fountain pen well, and like getting ready for surgery, I washed my hands before I did it. Writing, like life, is art. As you start, tilt the paper a bit, use the index finger and thumb tips to hold the pen, hold gently, because if you press to hard fountain pens either won’t write or if you don’t keep moving you’ll bleed too much ink on the paper, and then just begin. Practice and you’ll figure it out. The pen is your master - it will teach you to write well. Writing is therapeutic, and a way to be present with the now.