what comes after medium?

i'm talking about pens... as in the size of their tips. i'm definitely a fine point man, and have never liked writing with medium points. i can't imagine writing with something even bigger than medium... there's probably no such thing, at least none that i have seen.

this nice pen i have ran out of ink on the weekend. i think it was a freebie, though i can't remember where i got it. it was a fine point, blue, nice ink flow, dark. a pleasure to write with. earlier this year the rubbery grip thing started to harden and turned from white to yellow. the clip also broke off when i was playing with it. and now, it's totally dead.

the death of my pen took place in the middle of my taking notes for a talk by michael raiter at international outlook on saturday night. part of his talk (preaching from luke 9:51 - 10:1) was about the examples of people who said they would follow Jesus, but had other concerns that seemed of higher priority. while not inherently bad in and of themselves, these things (having a home, looking after parents, caring for family etc) were a distraction to something that was even more important - serving God. and here i was, distracted by a pen that ran out of ink, and thinking about where i was going to find another one that wrote as nicely... whether i had any spares at home i could replace it with, or if i had to go shopping for one... come to think of it, i don't think i've bought any pens since my university days!

it was a sobering talk - what i needed i think. i was pretty tired and didn't really "get" much out of the missions displays and electives (having been to IO the last few years and feeling like i'd seen pretty much everything i wanted to see, though the TESOL elective was at least refreshing). and by mid/late afternoon i was beginning to wonder whether there's really much point for me to keep coming back each year. but... i'm glad i stayed for the evening talk. that's the core i think, the getting back to the bible and what it says. anyways, i was only there for two of the sessions, so decided to order a video of all 5 talks to watch later. will hopefully "recruit" some more audience members for it!