Pointing at stuff

Maybe things were just simpler. I found this wooden pointer during a clean-out and began immediately having all sorts of grammar school classroom anxiety flashbacks. I don't know why but holding that pointer made me feel a little queasy. 

It is only a rubber tipped, two foot long piece of wood but it has some power. In the old days, you sat in a class or a meeting and the person speaking had one of these pointers. I think that it's primary purpose was to bring your attention to a smaller subset of information in the bigger picture. The instructor or teacher held it and moved the rubber point to the particular image, word or object that your attention was required to fix upon. 

Nowadays we use laser pointing devices. A usually red beam is shined from a handheld laser pointer to bring your attention to the subject matter at hand. It works pretty well but it somehow fails to have the same presence as the good old wooden pointer. Maybe that is because the wooden pointer many times doubled as a weapon. 

While the laser pointer can also be used in meeting combat, the old fashioned wooden pointer was the equivalent of the knife or bayonet - up close and personal weaponry. The laser pointer could be used from a safe distance but the wooden pointer was a clear weapon of hand to hand combat. I think maybe that is why I get kind of queasy seeing the old pointer.

Then again, maybe it is because the last one I saw in action was used to help instruct us on nuclear fallout avoidance in the early 60s. I vaguely recall the teacher banging one of these on her large oak desk while instructing us to get under our metal desks to be safe from the nuclear blast that was about to happen. A wooden ghost from the past - or maybe a reminder of the fragile times we live(d) in.