The Phoenix Renaissance aka How the Pen Finds Me
What you are seeking is seeking you. Have you ever heard that? Maybe as a meme on social media? Or maybe your therapist told you that once? When it comes to my pen collection, I can take one quick look and tell you about any pen and how it found me. Of course, there was that one order on Amazon of 8 Wing Sungs that cost $3 each that found their way into my cart haphazardly as I was searching for Pilot Varsity pens for the cursive students in my daughters’ third grade class. That is not super interesting except that it’s such a common way things find us as pop-up ads.
What is really fun and interesting is how some very special and unique pens have found me while I was looking for something else. Enter the ST DuPont Phoenix Renaissance.
So, let’s have a bit of a cheeky chat about grail pens for a minute. Do you have a grail pen? Like, do you actually own it? Or do you have one in mind that you are saving up for? Have you chatted with your pen friends about what happens when you actually acquire your grail pen? Then you acquire it and you discover there is a new grail pen out there that you have to have?
Yes? To all of these questions?
Of course! Because you love all the pens and you know yourself and you know what is special to you.
The grail pen conversation began for me at the DC Pen Show in August 2017 when I saw the ST DuPont Phoenix at Bryant Greer’s table (@chatterleyluxuries). I hemmed and hawed over this audaciously ornate pen all weekend and ultimately passed on it. But I kept thinking about it for a long while. Now, you have to know that at that time in my life I identified with the Phoenix who burns beautifully and rises from the ashes every time. So, the Phoenix was looking for me too.
The question was lingering for a long time in the back of my mind like “should I have pulled the trigger on that Limited Edition Phoenix? And what would I do with it if I actually got it?” as I went to pen shows and welcomed in all the pens.
Fast forward to the next DC Pen Show in August 2018 where I saw my friend, Bryant and I asked him if he still had the Phoenix. Sadly, no, but I lingered around his table all weekend checking out all of his beautiful pens where I found a stunning Montegrappa that I had to have. That was Saturday afternoon of the pen show.
Let me tell you about Sundays at pen shows. It slows down and there is a strange burst in the morning that quickly morphs into a lull that mimics that last day of your best vacation ever. You’re not sure what to do with yourself because you know you have to pack up and get on a plane the next day. This Sunday was no exception, except that I got my second wind at about 4 o’clock and walked the aisles of the DC Pen Show with openness and hope. I wasn’t sure what I was hoping for, but I had a strange sense that there was a pen in the ballroom for me.
That’s when I casually arrived at Bryant’s table just to chat again for the eleventh time that weekend and peruse his stash. Like I’m just hanging out chatting all things pens when, lo and behold, I spy with my discerning eye the ST DuPont Phoenix Renaissance! I know in that moment I said “Bryant! What is this?”, as I picked up this gorgeous sparkly silver and black pen with a Phoenix clip! Oh yeah, that’s the Phoenix Renaissance, he says! I’m all like rainbows and unicorns flying above my head as I pick up this gorgeousness that has seemingly found me at 4:30pm on the Sunday of the DC Pen Show.
I had been ruminating about the ornate Phoenix for a long time and then suddenly, in a flash moment, this grail pen with the subtle lines of a perfect ST DuPont appeared before me begging to be seen with all it’s ornate simplicity and subtle fire and beckoning affection.
In that moment, I knew that what I was seeking had been seeking me all along.