A Short Pencil

"Do you need a pencil?" my journalism professor Verne Edwards asked.

Verne Edwards (1924-2019)

He must've heard my whispered request for a writing implement to the student next to me in class.

"Yes, sir. I forgot my pen," I replied as I reached for the pencil he was extending towards me.

He gently pulled it back just out of my reach and and addressed  the class on how a reporter was never allowed to be without a pencil or a pad of paper. That it was unacceptable in the field and thus in his class.

Although I was the trigger for the lecture, he didn't focus on me. He was laying down the law for the whole class about always being prepared to write and that we couldn't depend on remembering what happened. It all had to be recorded in writing at the time we were hearing it.

As he finally handed me the pencil, he looked me in the eye and said, "A short pencil is better than a long memory."

And then he said it again to the entire class.