A women I didn’t know and who I had never seen before, walked up to me in a room full of talking people.

I was just standing there, saying nothing.

“Excuse me,” she said, “do you have a pen?”

“Well,” my hands went instinctively to the pocket where I keep pens, “yes, I do.”

I handed her my favorite pen.

“I knew it.”

“Knew what?

“I knew you’d have a pen.  You just look like someone who would have a pen.”

I had to ask:  “And how exactly is that that I look - like someone who would have a pen, I mean?”

She didn’t answer.   She was purposefully fumbling through her wallet, searching for a scrap of anything upon which to scratch a phone number, or new contact, or item for tomorrow’s grocery run.

“Paper?” I ask, pulling a small notebook from the same pocket and ripping out a clean sheet. 

Chuckling, and even more sure of her judgment, she finished the note and handed me back my pen.   And then giving me that secret little smile that people who carry pens share with each other, she gathered her possessions and whisked away.

And then she was gone

I was standing in her wake.  Having the time, standing there as I was, saying nothing, I decided to do some self-examination.

What…? I wondered out loud, … does someone who looks like someone who would be carrying a pen look like?  And is it necessarily a good thing or a bad thing? 

I was faced with a whole spectrum of possibilities that ran the gamut from rancid geek to sophisticated boy-gallant.  I wasn’t quite sure.

But the answer was quite obvious.  Quite evidently a person who looks as if they’d be carrying a pen looks a lot like me because, after all, I DO look like someone who looks like they’d be carrying a pen.  We’ve already established that.  The lady just said so.  (And in retrospect, she seemed the type of women who knew what she was talking about.)

•     •     •

You never know.  You may need to find me someday in a room full of talking people.  You may not know what I look like.  Or you may need a pen and not know where to turn.  Here’s my advice: just look for the guy who looks an awful lot like someone who would have a pen.   He looks like me, because I look like that.  That’s what I look like.  

It's not a good thing or a bad thing, I suppose.  It just is... whether geek or gallant.  You'll probably find me.  And you'll surely find a pen.