How to Recieve Your Traveling Writer
Introduction
Receiving a Traveling Writer is not a lifeless or listless weekend errand like sending the wife out to pick up a Bic or Uni-Ball Toss-away! The same goes for you ladies who yawn when sending hubby to WH Smith for your favorite inking tool. The arrival of a Traveling Writer is more like an Ancient Mariner rocking up for a dram of single malt with a duffle bag of stories of the high seas written on sheets of wrapping paper collected from stores consumed rounding the Cape of Good Hope! Shaking hands with your Traveling Writer after a long wait during manufacture and shipping is akin to grasping the withered hand of a Man Who Would Be King! This is not about buying a pen! Think more in terms of a holy relic or a rare trophy earned by the roads you’ve traveled or by the roads that have traveled you.
Receiving a Traveling Writer is not a lifeless or listless weekend errand like sending the wife out to pick up a Bic or Uni-Ball Toss-away! The same goes for you ladies who yawn when sending hubby to WH Smith for your favorite inking tool. The arrival of a Traveling Writer is more like an Ancient Mariner rocking up for a dram of single malt with a duffle bag of stories of the high seas written on sheets of wrapping paper collected from stores consumed rounding the Cape of Good Hope! Shaking hands with your Traveling Writer after a long wait during manufacture and shipping is akin to grasping the withered hand of a Man Who Would Be King! This is not about buying a pen! Think more in terms of a holy relic or a rare trophy earned by the roads you’ve traveled or by the roads that have traveled you.
For this reason I post this document to every man, woman, or child who
submits an application to acquire a Traveling Writer! This is not a
warning about possible dangers or inherent threats but rather a notice
that fortunate pilgrims and diligent hunters know well ahead of time
that receiving a Traveling Writer is a special event! My suggestions to
all once and future companions of a Traveling Writer grow out of the
procedures followed that special evening when the very first Traveling
Writer ever created by Michael Knott (Woodjoy Fine Writing Instruments,
Ipswich, England) arrived in the mailbox where I was staying in
Summerville SC. That was November 22, 2011 with the sun sitting on the
western wood line!
Ortega y Gasset wrote in “Meditations on Hunting” that “the hunter is the alert man!” Over six decades of The Road I have come to realize that life is not lived nor is it remembered except by alert people. Traveling Writers, like hunters, do not succeed and cannot remember unless they are alert. This document is pre-posted to all seekers to help create the state of alertness necessary to receive this fine writing instrument rooted and grounded in history, in the hunt, and on the Road! The engraving on the cap of the Traveling Writer lifts this banner: “Rather the road than the Castle!” r.vehorn. When you receive your Traveling Writer make sure you have considered the significance of the occasion. Be alert!
Ortega y Gasset wrote in “Meditations on Hunting” that “the hunter is the alert man!” Over six decades of The Road I have come to realize that life is not lived nor is it remembered except by alert people. Traveling Writers, like hunters, do not succeed and cannot remember unless they are alert. This document is pre-posted to all seekers to help create the state of alertness necessary to receive this fine writing instrument rooted and grounded in history, in the hunt, and on the Road! The engraving on the cap of the Traveling Writer lifts this banner: “Rather the road than the Castle!” r.vehorn. When you receive your Traveling Writer make sure you have considered the significance of the occasion. Be alert!
|
When The Parcel Arrives
If your Traveling Writer has to trek from England to Africa then the waiting period may seem interminable. You may despair before delivery. If the destination is the United States you will become sullen and anxious after seven days! The emotional state you are in by arrival will vary from person to person but you can survive. Your eagerness will heighten the intensity of the moment the postman leaves the parcel in your mailbox! You will know before you know that your Traveling Writer has arrived. If you are home alone and have to fetch the parcel from the mailbox do it very deliberately as though you were stalking some dangerous game. Running to the mailbox wildly squealing like a groupie on the front row of a live concert will be embarrassing later when you think about it. Send someone to fetch the post or wait a few minutes and stroll out to the box yourself. |
Organize sequential serial numbered Traveling Writers and open with a good friend!
|
Once you collect the parcel put it under the junk mail and matrix bills
and place it on your desk or table. Walk away showing no interest and
do not look back! The sacred guest is safely in your possession and you
need to catch your breath. The Traveling Writer has risen from a
mindset that stretches back to a time when men were men and monks were
waterfowlers! This relic takes its place in a line of vision and blood
drawn across the vast plain of history, a line that separates movers
and shakers from couch potatoes and Esau’s of every age who trade their
humanity for bread and circus! The Traveling Writer will not be at home
in the hands of an age that considers nothing sacred and greed a
virtue. Do not rush about like a mad thing and undress the parcel like a
prostitute. Let the parcel lie hidden in the administrative debris of a
modern age of buying and selling for an hour or even two hours! You
are not the modern man, a numbered soul with a price tag; you are the
alert man. The excitement of knowing the wait is over is plenty food
for thought over the next hour or so.
Prepare The Table and The Spirit
After an intentional wait then prepare the table and the spirit to unwrap the parcel! No adventure great or small should be initiated without some form of glass or tumbler. If you have a corner sanctuary in your home or office then make ready there. If you have a room with a view or an over hanging rock or boma where communion fires are built and burned to ashes then prepare there. If you celebrate holy moments and special friends with communion wines then uncork a suitable vintage. If you open or close seasons and sojourns with a single malt whisky then towel the watermarks off your Waterford crystal tumbler and collect the ice, water, and dram! If you do not partake of wine or of whisky then YOU DON’T NEED A TRAVELING WRITER and you should stop reading here and immediately cancel your order! Traveling Writers are not for the small- minded, the self-centered, or the overly righteous who believe the highest and holiest life is defined in a moral code! Save yourself the eventual agony of thinking you got ripped off by a faceless pen monger! This appendix is a warning.
But back to the drama, “How To Receive A Traveling Writer!”
The table has been prepared. What I did was mix a Waterford double tumbler with ice, water, and single malt! The dram du jour was a Lagavulin 16! Wait! Maybe it was a Longmorn, Place of the Holy Man! No! On that special occasion it was a Caol Ila 18. There is total certainty that it was not wine. The libation needs to be mixed to your personal specs! For me that is the Kafiristan Tea recipe. First you fill the double tumbler to the ceiling with cubes of ice, even though the original Kafiristan Tea was constructed on a foundation of crushed ice. If the ice rises a bit above the rim of the volcano, don’t fret. The first touch of fire water will settle those cubes perfectly. Then pour in the dram so that the tumbler is exactly half full! By filling with water the Kafiristan Tea drink will be 50-50 single malt and water. The melting ice keeps it well below room temperature and gives you a sense of moderate consumption when you pour the second round. While you survey your miles on the road and a few amazing pulls in the bush go through the first dram slowly.
After an intentional wait then prepare the table and the spirit to unwrap the parcel! No adventure great or small should be initiated without some form of glass or tumbler. If you have a corner sanctuary in your home or office then make ready there. If you have a room with a view or an over hanging rock or boma where communion fires are built and burned to ashes then prepare there. If you celebrate holy moments and special friends with communion wines then uncork a suitable vintage. If you open or close seasons and sojourns with a single malt whisky then towel the watermarks off your Waterford crystal tumbler and collect the ice, water, and dram! If you do not partake of wine or of whisky then YOU DON’T NEED A TRAVELING WRITER and you should stop reading here and immediately cancel your order! Traveling Writers are not for the small- minded, the self-centered, or the overly righteous who believe the highest and holiest life is defined in a moral code! Save yourself the eventual agony of thinking you got ripped off by a faceless pen monger! This appendix is a warning.
But back to the drama, “How To Receive A Traveling Writer!”
The table has been prepared. What I did was mix a Waterford double tumbler with ice, water, and single malt! The dram du jour was a Lagavulin 16! Wait! Maybe it was a Longmorn, Place of the Holy Man! No! On that special occasion it was a Caol Ila 18. There is total certainty that it was not wine. The libation needs to be mixed to your personal specs! For me that is the Kafiristan Tea recipe. First you fill the double tumbler to the ceiling with cubes of ice, even though the original Kafiristan Tea was constructed on a foundation of crushed ice. If the ice rises a bit above the rim of the volcano, don’t fret. The first touch of fire water will settle those cubes perfectly. Then pour in the dram so that the tumbler is exactly half full! By filling with water the Kafiristan Tea drink will be 50-50 single malt and water. The melting ice keeps it well below room temperature and gives you a sense of moderate consumption when you pour the second round. While you survey your miles on the road and a few amazing pulls in the bush go through the first dram slowly.
|
|
|
During the preparation stage now you will want to pour a second round. While blending spirit and history with the second round you will take the parcel out from under the flyers and bills, removing them from sight! The shredding machine works beautifully here. If that daring act of freedom and autonomy gives a surge to your spirit then you will be in a much better state of mind to take up the Traveling Writer. Complete any acts of rebellion against the systems that bind your spirit you and place the unpretentious brown paper parcel before you. This brings us to the end of the second stage of “how to receive a Traveling Writer!” Now forward to the good stuff!
Open the Parcel
Forgive me if it seems I regress here. It’s for your own good and to save you time. At this point you simply want to see that gleaming brass and chrome road tool you will use to record some of the most alive moments of your life. Think of that....”record some of the most alive moments of my life!” Makes my mouth water! I’ve seen grown men cry upon such recollections! The temptation to veer off course here and write another book pulls against the flow. I will not yield as you will only want to unwrap your Traveling Writer!
The apparent regression is to say a word or two about the honorable Michael Knott who humbly agreed to take my Traveling Writer design and make a fine writing instrument out of it. Not only did he make a fine writing instrument but he kept the party line I composed and made my Traveling Writer reflect the magic and longing I had on my first rail ride from Johannesburg to Queenstown. On that epic ride my eyes first beheld the functional and aesthetic beauty of a South African Skoff Tin! But that’s another story, i.e., the primal inspiration for the Traveling Writer.
|
Micheal Knott has designed and created amazing Woodjoy writing
instruments for years. His creations are collected, used, and treasured
by admirers all about. The fact that Michael, Jedi Pen Master,
manufactures his pens without any sensory feeling in his arms and hands
baffles us who struggle to button our shirts with fully functional
fingers. Mr. Knott agreed to create my dreamed of writing instrument
without any hesitation. Since Michael will also create each and every
Traveling Writer from his workshop on the northern boundaries of
Ipswich, England, I do not know how many pens we will be able to
supply. But that’s not the point of my discussion here. What I want to
do is lead you alertly through the arrival and reception of your own
Traveling Writer.
|
Dr Michael Knott
|
Point is Mr. Michael Knott is also Dr. Michael Knott. That’s right.
Dr. Knott has a doctorate in engineering. The Traveling Writer will
speak for his engineering prowess but you need to know in advance of
receiving your pen that the degree of his engineering skill has to be
conquered long before you see your pen. Dr. Knott makes a higher order
of writing instrument but he also packages these gems for shipping as
though he were packaging nuclear waste. Now I’ve never received or
opened any nuclear waste but I can confidently say that Dr. Knott is
the man for the job.
As I sat at the kitchen table sipping my second double tumbler of something single I began to fumble for a seam in the brown paper wrapping. I do not have a degree, let alone a doctorate, in engineering. So I fumbled and rolled and rubbed this way then that way like playing with a spool of tape looking for a weak link in the wrapping. There was no weak link and no discernible edge and the doctor’s engineering skills puzzled me. Try pulling as hard as you can on a corner of the parcel! Still no weak link! Try digging a thumb nail into an end hoping to bust a hole in the atomic proof skin of the parcel. If you will read this and act accordingly you might have a knife on hand before you enjoy the first whisky. If you think I am horsing around then you’ll probably end up using the ignition key to one of your fancy Landrover or giant 4 X 4 magnum pickups to pierce this nuclear proof outer layer. Eventually you will penetrate that outer space age skin and begin to open your Traveling Writer parcel.
Once the outer skin is removed you will find a layer of bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is about as easy to remove as undersized chest waders! Right! It’s easier than that but when the bubble wrap comes with its own thin skin of atomic protective tape you start all over like in the beginning. By now you are appreciating this pre-arrival post. The Landrover key does not work so well here as it did on the outer skin because the padding is diminishing! To get through this second nuclear free skin you will do better if you have a Brothers of the Warthog folding skinner. The stainless Damascus blade there works far better than a dull letter opener from the office. A knife will speed up the process here and get you to the bubble wrap quicker. Once you are to the bubble wrap then you will begin to see the faint colors of the deep stained presentation box wherein lies your Traveling Writer. By now you will appreciate the nuclear waste reference or be off into your own images of opening a tomb in the bowels of a pyramid! Without this pre-reception post just think of the wad your panties would be in!
The second layer of skin is off now and the bubble wrap is removed. There before you is the sarcophagus of satin finished wood wherein lies your Traveling Writer. You are there! I cannot add any further advice but trust you to trust your instincts and dig deep to your core values and hold fast to a story of the road that gives your life meaning and OPEN THE WOODEN BOX!!!!
As I sat at the kitchen table sipping my second double tumbler of something single I began to fumble for a seam in the brown paper wrapping. I do not have a degree, let alone a doctorate, in engineering. So I fumbled and rolled and rubbed this way then that way like playing with a spool of tape looking for a weak link in the wrapping. There was no weak link and no discernible edge and the doctor’s engineering skills puzzled me. Try pulling as hard as you can on a corner of the parcel! Still no weak link! Try digging a thumb nail into an end hoping to bust a hole in the atomic proof skin of the parcel. If you will read this and act accordingly you might have a knife on hand before you enjoy the first whisky. If you think I am horsing around then you’ll probably end up using the ignition key to one of your fancy Landrover or giant 4 X 4 magnum pickups to pierce this nuclear proof outer layer. Eventually you will penetrate that outer space age skin and begin to open your Traveling Writer parcel.
Once the outer skin is removed you will find a layer of bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is about as easy to remove as undersized chest waders! Right! It’s easier than that but when the bubble wrap comes with its own thin skin of atomic protective tape you start all over like in the beginning. By now you are appreciating this pre-arrival post. The Landrover key does not work so well here as it did on the outer skin because the padding is diminishing! To get through this second nuclear free skin you will do better if you have a Brothers of the Warthog folding skinner. The stainless Damascus blade there works far better than a dull letter opener from the office. A knife will speed up the process here and get you to the bubble wrap quicker. Once you are to the bubble wrap then you will begin to see the faint colors of the deep stained presentation box wherein lies your Traveling Writer. By now you will appreciate the nuclear waste reference or be off into your own images of opening a tomb in the bowels of a pyramid! Without this pre-reception post just think of the wad your panties would be in!
The second layer of skin is off now and the bubble wrap is removed. There before you is the sarcophagus of satin finished wood wherein lies your Traveling Writer. You are there! I cannot add any further advice but trust you to trust your instincts and dig deep to your core values and hold fast to a story of the road that gives your life meaning and OPEN THE WOODEN BOX!!!!
Wooden Presentation Box
|
Open the Box
(The Black Leather Carry Case Comes With The Traveling Writer...the wooden presentation box is available on special order!) I really don’t want to say anything more at this point. I believe I have given you the essential knowledge to prepare you for your Traveling Writer. If you follow this line of thought you will know “How To Receive A Traveling Writer!” The presentation box is well engineered but thank the Lord it is not a Rubics Cube of Knott Engineering myth! You will probably open it upside down but that does not matter. The Traveling Writer will be firmly embedded in the presentation box with its own shroud of bubble wrap. |
Once this shroud is removed the Traveling Writer fits
loosely in its bed and can be carried in your luggage or deposited in
your pocket. Since the Traveling Writer was “conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created” to record their
stories and to pass their wisdom to the next generation you will find
the writing instrument capable of work, of difficulty, of endurance, and
of life.
You will enjoy composing your own oath to your Traveling Writer, which is nothing more than an oath to your pursuit of passion and purpose. Mine goes something like this until I find myself in another bush camp in Africa or mulling the passage of time on the banks of the Zambezi in the Barotse Flood Plain or peering into the rain forest mist below the Victoria Falls or trying to steady the crosshairs on a 53 inch kudu or sharing a glass of Harrison Hope 2009 Merlot in my sacred boma in Africa, and then it shifts:
You should now have your Traveling Writer in your hand and there’s nothing more that needs to be said!
You are now a self-initiated fortunate member of the Ancient and Plebian Order of the Traveling Writer! Write On!
Regards.
Ronnie Vehorn
The Traveling Writer
PS. When my elder daughter held my Traveling Writer for the first time she quietly said: “I feel like I should be writing a check for a million dollars.” My lovely wife said I must suggest to all female Traveling Writers that there is better weight and balance in writing for the ladies when the cap is left on the table. Enjoy your Traveling Writer and Welcome to the Order!!!
You will enjoy composing your own oath to your Traveling Writer, which is nothing more than an oath to your pursuit of passion and purpose. Mine goes something like this until I find myself in another bush camp in Africa or mulling the passage of time on the banks of the Zambezi in the Barotse Flood Plain or peering into the rain forest mist below the Victoria Falls or trying to steady the crosshairs on a 53 inch kudu or sharing a glass of Harrison Hope 2009 Merlot in my sacred boma in Africa, and then it shifts:
You should now have your Traveling Writer in your hand and there’s nothing more that needs to be said!
You are now a self-initiated fortunate member of the Ancient and Plebian Order of the Traveling Writer! Write On!
Regards.
Ronnie Vehorn
The Traveling Writer
PS. When my elder daughter held my Traveling Writer for the first time she quietly said: “I feel like I should be writing a check for a million dollars.” My lovely wife said I must suggest to all female Traveling Writers that there is better weight and balance in writing for the ladies when the cap is left on the table. Enjoy your Traveling Writer and Welcome to the Order!!!
