Why a Minneapolis neighborhood sharpens a giant pencil every year

MINNEAPOLIS — More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil.

The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life.

The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players provided part of this year's entertainment. The hosts commemorated a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday.

Rachel Hyman said she flew from Chicago on Friday for the event, which a friend told her about.

''Some man is sharpening a pencil on his lawn and this is what happens? Yeah, I'm gonna be part of it. How can you not? Life is too short," said Hyman, dressed in a pencil costume.

In the wake of the storm, the Higginses knew they wanted to create a sculpture out of their tree. They envisioned a whimsical piece of pop art that people could recognize, but not a stereotypical chainsaw-carved, north-woods bear. Given the shape and circumference of the log, they came up with the idea of an oversized pencil standing tall in their yard.

''Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,'' Amy Higgins said. ''Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people's work, or drawings, everything. So, it's just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.''

So they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil.

''People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,'' Ingvoldstad said.

That's true even if their reaction is negative, he added. ''Whatever you want to bring, you know, it's you at the end of the day. And it's a good place. It's good to have pieces that do that for people."

John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together.

''We tell a story about the dull tip, and we're gonna get sharp,'' he said. ''There's a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank-you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.''

To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that is erected for the event.

Like a real pencil, this one is ephemeral. Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They have taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year. They haven't decided how much to shave off this year. They are OK knowing that they could reduce it to a stub one day. The artist said they will let time and life dictate its form — that is part of the magic.

''Like any ritual, you've got to sacrifice something," Ingvoldstad said. "So we're sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, ‘This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you've done this year.' ''