One of the first reading assignments students receive in my Introduction to Culinary Medicinecourse taught at the University of Montana is the economics classic “I, Pencil,” written by the master economist Leonard E. Read in 1958. It was immortalized by Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, who praised the essay for its clear depiction of the “invisible hand” of the market. Friedman even wrote an afterword for a reprint of the essay, emphasizing its enduring relevance. Although ostensibly about producing a pencil and how no individual has the raw materials and knowledge to make such a simple everyday tool, it teaches a much more profound lesson. And that is the presence of the “timeless and invisible hand” that weaves the interconnections that bind us in so many individual, societal and global ways.
