SABLE
S.A.B.L.E.: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
There are people on this earth that have an addiction to the finer things in life. I'm talking about finer things like notepads, memo books, pens, pencils and other collections. If you are afflicted with S.A.B.L.E., you know who you are and you know what I'm talking about.
My encounter with it started early in life. As a child I was always excited to start a new year in school. There was something about going to the store and picking out a pencil box, then choosing the pencils, erasers, tablet paper and other items for the box. I can remember the big fat pencil that I got as a first grader. The first grade was my introduction to a thing called a Pencil Sharpener. I always thought pencils were sharpened by whittling them with a pocket knife.
The very best moment was when I got home from shopping with Mom and I started removing the items from their packages. I always arranged them nicely on the table and then fit them into the box. I would arrange that box several times over the next few days until school started. The little ruler would always have to go on the bottom, along with the rounded point scissors. The pencils were arranged on either side of the box, with the eraser in the middle.
I opened the paper tablets, skimming the pages, rippling them on the corners. I loved the smell of those tablets and I was excited about the possibilities of all of the new things I would get to write in them. I would literally hold that tablet in both hands as if I were blessing it for accepting the beautiful prose that I would soon be writing in those lined pages.
The tablet would be officially started by me writing my name in the front cover. I also always added my address in case of the tablet getting lost. The school was a big place and things got lost. It wasn't enough to only write on the cover, I also went ahead and wrote the date on the first page.
So, we fast forward a few years and here we are, doing the same thing with tablets and pencils! I see a pen, pencil, notebook or something else and I buy it. I call it a Collection, but it spans a lot of things.
Today, when I get a new Field Note notebook (usually Black Ice), the first thing I do is open the book, skim the pages, ripple them on the corners. I love the aroma of a freshly opened Field Note, and I am excited about the possibilities of all the new things I can write in them.