One section of a bookshop that always beckons me seductively, is where they display stationary. It isn’t books by famous authors that has me enthralled, or shelves that contain classics by writers of yore, nor crime or fiction, but empty pads of white paper that come in all shapes and sizes.
And I leave the bookshop, with a notepad or notebook tucked firmly under my arm.
But it isn’t long before those white sheets of paper are filled with my horrible handwriting, or doodles, or scrawls, or ink stains that turn those pure white sheets into blackened monsters!
I thought of same poor sheets as I read Kahlil Gibran’s, ‘Said A Sheet of Snow-white Paper’, “Pure was I created and pure I will remain forever. I would rather be burnt and turned to white ashes than suffer darkness to touch me or the unclean to come near me.”
The ink-bottle heard what the paper was saying, and it laughed in its dark heart, but it never dared to approach her. And the multicoloured pencils heard her also, and they too never came near her.
And the snow white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste for ever-pure and chaste- and EMPTY!’
After I read these profound lines I think of those piles of white stationary in the bookshops. Are they all crying the same? Are they also looking at pens and coloured pencils and shuddering? At ink bottles, and trembling with not just fright but disgust?
If all white sheets of paper had been left as they were, there would never have been a Shakespeare or a Bible, no recorded words of wisdom, or any great works for us.
It was ink that darkened the paper, the pen that scratched its pure surface that brought great works to light.
But, how many of us are like those white sheets of paper lying in bookstores? How many who will not take the risk of allowing the pen of opportunities, write lines on them? Who say, “Let me remain safe and secure, white and wholesome!”
In my book DARE, I spoke of a sentence that changed my life, it was, “Tiptoeing through life to finally face death!”
Are you, a white sheet of paper, fearful, timid, fainthearted and apprehensive, not daring to allow life to write lines of experience, episodes and events that could make you a book for others to read and learn?
The ink bottle of opportunity, the pen and pencil of adventure wait patiently for you to stop your tiptoeing and put ink to white pages!
And as your white pages get written on, you’ll hear a Divine Voice whispering, “Are you willing to let Me write on your pages too?”
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Most of us are not daring enough to scribble on the white piece of paper for fear of becoming lesser mortals than what we display Bobby. But scribble we do and throw or tuck it away. We have to learn to dare
Yes Sebastian. We certainly have to DARE!
At the end of the day, this pure white sheet is going to be a huge manuscript .
Whether it’s a meticulously calligraphed autobiography edited by the Master or a book scribbled by several authors , is one’s personal choice !
Beautifully put, as usual Ayesha
In one’s lifetime, one cannot afford to be the pristine White Sheet of paper. There has to be adventure, taking opportunity & risks offered et all…. You don’t do that and you stand to regret the decision to keep the pristine White Sheet unstained!
So true Colonel.
The white sheet of paper that allows the darkening of the ink and the muted colors of the coloured pens and pencils to be written on it may look like a mosaic or piece of art at the end of it all..who knows..and the Divine Master maybe pleased to own it after all..
Have’nt we kept something for arts sake after all the scribbling..because for us it looked good!
Very true Celia
Very nice and meaningful indeed !!
Thank you Prakash
Your article has given life to an inanimate page! It’s interesting how you turn a common object subject to thoughts of an active mind Bobby, you deserve to be appreciated for that.Good job! I applaud you for it !
Thank you Kripa.