Pencils 4 Life - Thought of the Heart

Around four years ago, Meir Kay, a popular actor, filmmaker and social media influencer released a clip of one of his actors telling a short, powerful lesson from his younger years. The lesson, which is so simple, stands out to me for being quite a sweet and creative lesson and I’ve been hoping to share it with you on the blog under a new section, labeled “Thoughts of the Heart”.

Here it is!

I hope you find it enjoyable

Yitzy Schweitzer

Pencils 4 Life - Thought of the Heart

The actor told the following story:

My father was the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ type of person, a man who worked hard, with his hands and never complained. A simple man with no formal education, he would teach me lessons for life with parables and stories.

Well, one day, before I left for college, he sat me down and took a little pencil out of his pocket. He turned to me and said, “Son, there are four important things you need to know before you get ready to take on the world. Remember these things and you will be the best person you can be.

“Firstly” my father continued “look at this pencil in my hand. Well, we know that in order for a pencil to be useful, sometimes it has to go through a re-sharpening, to get in shape. Well, if this pencil could feel we could imagine how painful that could be, but that's what it takes for the pencil to be considered useful.

“Life is much the same. Painful experiences and challenges come to us all, and despite how pressurising and difficult those challenges are it is through them that we build character and grow.

“Second, keep in mind that just like an eraser corrects the pencil’s mistakes and gives the writer an opportunity to improve, if we learn from our mistakes, they are not mistakes, they’re lessons we can use to do better next time.

“Third, just like this pencil” my father continued “Every place where you are you, so to speak, you leave your mark. You’re writing a story unique to you. Think of stumbling blocks as stepping stones and never stop writing.

“Finally” my father concluded, “Fourth, always remember, the most important part of you, just like this pencil, is what is inside.”