Uncommon Things: PEN AND PAPER

A Pen. A sheet of paper.

These are common objects that you will find in any home or office anywhere in the world. A pen with blue or red or black ink. A sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. A scrap of paper. The back of a receipt. A sticky note. A legal pad. It doesn't really matter what the shape or size of the paper you have on hand. These things are there when you have something you need to record or remember.

What can you do with a pen and a sheet of paper?

• You can write a grocery list.
• You can write a letter to someone you love.
• You can prepare an invoice or a memo.
• You can cast your vote in an election.

But you can do so much more with a pen and a sheet of paper.

• You can create beautiful music that delights the senses.
• You can bring the wonders of the universe to a child seeing the world for the first time.
• You can bring sparking laughter into the world.
• You can bring hope to those who despair.
• You can move nations to strive to achieve the highest ideals of mankind.

With the stroke of a pen, you can change the world.

Galileo did. Leonardo di Vinci did. Leonard Bernstein did. Thomas Jefferson did. Mark Twain did. Martin Luther King did. Maya Angelou did. Nelson Mandela did. John F. Kennedy did. Shakespeare did.

You can too.

Reach for a pen and a piece of paper. Find your voice and make your own mark on the world.