Friday, January 3, 2020

LIVING WITH POLISH

   I’ve known a few people in my life who seemed to live lives of utter evenness, almost silkiness, as if their lives were somehow polished to the point where problems rolled easily over and around them. These people were not artificial in their smoothness, as though they were merely covering up some hidden brokenness, but seemed always genuinely unruffled, like the smooth and polished waters of an easy-moving river. I wonder if this might be why these people were also thoroughly polite, their friendly manners being similar to the way a lake will softly slide around you as you swim. Their politeness seemed as natural as an easy breeze feels as it flows around you, or as sunshine feels as it surrounds you on certain days. Speaking of sunshine, I recently found that the word ‘polite’ comes from the Latin word ‘polio’, which means ‘to polish’, and so perhaps these people were simply as polished as spring sunshine, bringing a genuine brightness and warmth wherever they went. I never had the feeling that they were ‘trying’ to be polite, but that courtesy and civility simply shone out from them like silky, polished sunshine.