Relative Something

Of all the things in the world that deserve our attention, I hate to admit that I get hung up on things like pencil lead. When the lead in a mechanical pencil runs out, there is no way to use the final half-inch of lead. It goes against my sense of frugality to just discard a perfectly write-able piece of lead. It seems to me that with the technology available to send rockets into space and land people on the moon without crashing into satellites that are beaming cell phone conversations about what someone posted on their Facebook page, there should be some way to design a device that holds the lead, allowing it to write all the way to the end!

But it occurs to me, now that I am writing about it, that there is probably more lead than my little remnant  piece, discarded every day when traditional wood pencils reach the end of their useful length. And in most of those, the lead is of an even bigger diameter, so there is a lot more waste occurring with the classic yellow number 2 test-taker. Relative to that, my mechanical is a real eco-friendly trend setter after all! What a relief. Now I can turn my attention to more significant problems like why it is so difficult sometimes to evenly engage the two-way zipper on my jacket, and thus allow it to pull all the way up. It is a rare occasion I get it on the first try.