But it’s too nice to write in

If you have a kitchen, chances are you have that one, really nice tea towel that you’ve never been able to use. You got it as a gift, on vacation, as a treat for yourself, and it’s just too nice to risk getting stained or faded or (horror of horrors) worn out. So, there it stays, in the back of the drawer, waiting for . . . what? Meanwhile, half of the time you’re looking at and using a tea towel you don’t like nearly as much.

A nice journal or sketchbook that you never write in isn’t quite so bad, right? You can display it on a shelf, leave it on your coffee table, and if someone picks it up to admire it, no worries because there’s nothing personal or creative there to embarrass you if guests leaf through it. Meanwhile, you’re always searching for a piece of paper to take down a note, write a list, copy an address.

If you started putting anything—grocery lists, random thoughts, funny memes copied from the Internet, maps of your house and garden, cartoons about your pets or friends, letters never meaning to send them—you’d be creating a record of how interesting the minutiae of life actually is. And you’d be keeping all of that in one readily accessible place.

How much data from recent history is abandoned on floppy disks, Zip drives, or writeable cd-roms? Yet, the same books written by clerics, renegade monks, or those printed from the first moveable type are as legible today as ever. Rarely have we enjoyed a technology that is so versatile and universal as paper and ink, and it’s also such a joy to use. Smooth paper, a nice pen, a quiet or hurried moment, and writing things down creates unique peace of mind.

There is no law that says if the book is lovely the contents must be too. We’re the culture that doesn’t judge books by their cover, remember? Write in the beautiful blank books you’ve been saving, give one to someone you want to encourage to write, or let yourself buy a gorgeous one just for you.

We’ll make more. Fill them up.