Today is overcast and cold. We had a snow storm yesterday and there is a significant amount of snow on the ground. I live in a downtown area so it isn’t a pretty, white, pristine snow, it’s the ‘cars just drove over me and spewed exhaust that made me brown’ snow. The last few weeks have been… unsettling. It’s cold but not really cold, it’s not exactly sunny or cloudy, it just seems to be in between everything. meh. It’s January and it’s not acting like it. It has made me… unsettled. So, I thought that I would write a post for today that was uplifting and inspiring and… I got nothin’. Plan B: I wondered what the most innocuous thing was that I could write about and I came up with the paper clip. Yep. The ubiquitous and yet rarely noticed device that has been used for hundreds of years to clip paper together. The paper clip.
According to Wikipedia:
The most common type of wire paper clip still in use, the Gem paper clip, was never patented, but it was most likely in production in Britain in the early 1870s by “The Gem Manufacturing Company”,
Nowadays the shape has changed in some. Gotten bigger, gotten smaller. Sometimes they are made of plastic. But I would bet that for the most part there are trillions of small bent wire clips in every office. Years ago, we talked about going paperless in our society but I don’t believe that’s actually a possibility and therefore we will always need to be able to clip paper together. Because we like control. And then I started to wonder about how much like life is that lowly little paper clip.
In order to become useful, little pieces of wire are bent into shapes that function. Aren’t we? We are born into a world knowing nothing and we are shaped by our education and later by our experiences into people that are functional and can contribute to society. Just like that paper clip. There are also those who are perhaps overworked and therefore become useless. Have you ever unbent a paper clip? Of course, then it is great for sticking in teeny tiny holes in our computers to make things reset. So, not all bad. How many times have you taken a handful of paper clips and clipped them together to make a chain or a strange creature. It’s amazing what we can do when we’re bored.
Butterfly Sand 
That was really very interesting! I hope your weather becomes more one thing than the other… In-between in no where! 💜
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I am quite sure that February will make us sit up and take notice. Canadian winters are not for the faint of heart.
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No I believe you and we have had a really bad winter with minus zero temps. Roll on Spring. Do keep warm 💜
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I’ve been bent 🤣…now wait a minute, let me finish…I’ve been bent in so many ways as this life goes on, just as long as I’m in the shape of love. Mmm, wonder what color that is? 😂 Great post dear lady, wisdom from such a tiny thing 😀
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You may have been bent but you have not been broken.
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Why thank you dear lady, you sharing here has shown me much flexibility 😀❤️🙏🏽
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And the inventor was brilliant
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Unfortunately, long forgotten
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A delightful post for an unsettled, meh January.
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Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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January isn’t behaving as it should down here, either, Pam. We’ve had virtually no snow. I enjoyed this post. Simple little things that they are, I’m still finding uses for them. Earlier this week, I used one of the larger ones to hold a bag of chips closed. One thing I don’t miss is how the unnoticed paperclip would get dragged into the feeder of a copier and gum up the works. I used to have to find those little guys. As for paperless–I think you’re right.
I hope you have a nice week. Even knowing what it means, I hope February behaves itself.
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They really are versatile little buggers. You have a good week too. February…
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The early version of a Swiss Army knife.
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Oh, I like that!
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Still not receiving posts, but I took the scenic route and found you!
What would we do without paper clips? I wonder if the genius inventor ever imagined the many ways we would use his little clip? Long live the paper clip because I don’t believe we will ever be paperless!
It’s good to be reminded of some of the things in our lives that seem so ordinary but are really extraordinary! Thank you for putting the spotlight on paper clips.
Ginger
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Everything that is now considered extraordinary was once upon a time simply ordinary.
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Such a simple, while ingenious, invention and so handy when you are a secretary (as was…) Good post Pam.
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I always had lots of them handy. Still do.
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What a unique analogy. Humans to paper clips. I would never have noticed what we have in common with the seemingly lowly paperclip had you not pointed it out.
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This is what happens when my mind is bored…
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Obviously your mind refuses to engage with boredom.
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I’ve used paper clips for almost everything. Eyeglass repair, small screw replacement, bike lock key, hole punch, spark plug cleaner, and who knows what. Excellent tribute to the paper clip, Pamela.
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Useful little clip.
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Yup.
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I love how your meh-ness pushed you into this very smart post. We will never be without them, their usefulness undeniable. I really like your analogy to us humans being very similar and just as useful!
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Thanks Dale!
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You said you had “nothing” and then you came up with this? Paper clips? I’d call that something fairly genius. 🙂
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Ha ha ha! Thank you! Nothing is worth something begins.
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