I already knew the surprising value of a handwriting digital ink tablet from owning the main other one for five years. So I will just sketch what that value is for those who don’t know what it might be for themselves. In a phrase, these objects live more closely to the mind than even the Notes on the smartphone. They have intimacy. Part of it is the lightness, but they are heavier than a pad of paper. In that lightness-yet-heavier than pads, comes an intangible intelligence that paper, ordinary paper, lacks. I have the Manta. When an idea (they come to me a lot) wafts through the mind, I want to do something with it, for it, and making marks that can last ‘forever’ or be erased in a tap of the pen invites me to open up a new sheet. It is lighter than opening my laptop, and maybe the nearly invisible electronic nature of the ink tablets, makes it quietly ‘me’ compared to the iPad. I have 10 years of writing and art on the iPad, and have now natural ease with these pens. I can paint and draw almost anything I can imagine on the iPad. But the Manta’s special app for art, that distinguishes it from my other brand, gets me into a space of sketching that satisfies the casual moments or the recording of a scene. It is hard to describe the beauty of this ‘friend’ compared to iPad, which is an art studio. This ‘friend’ is there in silence, which is due to its seeming to be turned off or not even digital. That is maybe just me. Of course, it is also online, has good storage and syncs with my iPhone and computers. I have drawn a tree study and made it my cover. I have easily shared it digitally. And the pen is remarkably more accurate in placement of the mark. There is no parallax effect to speak of, meaning I can put the pen back to the surface and continue a mark just as accurately as on paper. The half lid is smart, given the protection we want with half the weight. I have written many pages of thinking on psychology and done short stories and poems all in the month or so of owning it. These days, one can easily lose the amount of money for the Manta, pen, and cover in a few dinners at restaurants, tips and taxes and all that. All is to say, if you want to feed creativity at least as well as the body, I surely recommend this ‘friend’. Manta is a Muse.