DMB Digest: Mapping Pencils, Resolved!

Etymology Road Trip

A reader reached out and delivered me from insanity this past week. Many of you will remember ([shakes fist] remember, dang you!) a few weeks ago I pleaded for clarity on how and why I grew up calling colored pencils “map pencils.” Bless my soul, someone commented about the use of colored pencils for creating maps in the military. This didn’t exactly strike a chord for me. Sure, my pop spent a tour in the corps of engineers during the Vietnam War (in Vietnam they call it the American War) before I became a twinkle in his eye.

It’s possible he used colored pencils to map stuff during that conflict.

But then a Google fit led me to the golden “duh” moment: Geology. To be more specific, Geology Field Methods. Both of my parents majored in Geology at Texas Christian University (Go Frogs! [Shakes fist at Georgia Bulldog Alumni]). To be more specific, my father majored in Geology while emphasizing football, and my mother majored in Geology while emphasizing marriage to a college quarterback. But I’m sure they both took Geology Field Methods where they learned how to create maps using colored “map pencils.”

A few years later, little DMB is born and taught to reference colored pencils as “map pencils” despite the fact that he has never once used them to draw a map. (Well there was that one time I attempted to create my own version of the Risk board game. That was kinda a map.) Mystery solved.

Clearly I’m not crazy. Rather, I have a complex and nuanced upbringing that has equipped me with the insight to label things according to their usage rather than their status. I mean, if you want to continue to label pencils “colored” simply because that’s what they are, then go right ahead. Only myself and a few enlightened others will judge you.

I, for one, will continue to refer to these colorful pencils based on what they can accomplish. Hmmm, maybe Asian parents have been right all along. Perhaps I shouldn’t be thinking of my kids as “kids” but as “Computer Engineering Kid” and “Civil Engineering Kid” based on what they can accomplish rather than simply what they are. Meh, I guess I’ll try it out for a month and see how it goes. (Wait, does this mean that forty years ago my parents had tried to mold me into an engineer…or a geologist?)

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