Cherry-Picking

While I was reading this morning, I came across the word "patina". I like that word. It's not one that surfaces much in my vocabulary or in conversations with others. Maybe the word is old, outdated, perhaps forgotten.

While I know how to use the word patina, I decided to look it up on dictionary.com to dive a little deeper into its meaning. The definitions are fairly short:

1. a film or incrustation, usually green, produced by oxidation on the surface of old bronze and often esteemed as being of ornamental value.

2. a similar film or coloring appearing gradually on some other substance.

3. a surface calcification of implements, usually indicating great age.

dictionary.com

Interestingly, the above are noted as being the U.S. definitions. I scrolled further down the definition page, I noticed that dictionary.com also had the British version of the meaning of patina:

1. a film of oxide formed on the surface of a metal, esp the green oxidation of bronze or copper See also verdigris (def. 1)

2. any fine layer on a surface (a patina of frost)

3. the sheen on a surface that is caused by much handling

dictionary.com

From these definitions, I cherry-picked the ones that most struck a chord with me and how the word patina makes me feel, and I created my own definition...

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PATINA: The fine sheen found on the surface of an ornamental object that is valuable because of its age and how often it's been held by others or exposed to nature. --LLD

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What I like about my definition is the emphasis on value because of age, and the sheen that such an object reflects... like tarnished silver, copper turned green, the smooth crevice in a piece of wood that's been repeatedly touch by passerbyers...

I'm thinking about this word patina and how it relates to life. If I take tarnished silver, for example, I could see it as an object of neglect. It's been oxidized, and the true beauty of the object is hidden beneath black tarnish. It will take some elbow-grease to remove the grim.

I pick up the silver...say it's one of my antique coffee pitchers...I get out my Wright's Silver Cleaner and an old rag. I take the sponge from the cleaner and rub the cream across the whole surface of the coffee pitcher. As I put some muscle into it, the tarnished patina begins to melt away. The harder and longer that I work, the shinier my coffee pitcher becomes until it's like new again...radiant, reflective, shining in the light...beautiful.

Hmmm... I'm thinking. If I remove the patina, what have I stripped off? Obviously the tarnish, but I have I also removed evidence of hands that, through the years, held this coffee pot and poured hot java into the cups of visitors?

It would be easy to take this thought process a bunch of different ways.

I'm going with the importance of patina and the significance of it not just on an object, but also reflected upon a person.

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We might need to reach down deep under the layers of life

to restore the brilliance,

but, I am certain, it is there.

--LLD

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What would my patina be? Certainly age, but also how often I smile, show kindness, solve a problem, endure heartache, hell & highwater...what do I look like to those who pass by me in a 12-hour day? Is there radiance or only tarnish? A glow? Depression? Sadness? Light and Life?

All of that is there. I suppose some days my tarnished patina is more obvious than the life that has learned the joys and sorrows of being handled ...the life that has watched mountains move, walked through the valley of the shadow of death--and come out on the other side, experienced and witnessed unconscionable acts--and stood in the restoration, reconciliation and redemption of the past...I'm a walking miracle. Everyone is. No one is immune to being touched (or tortured) by the blackness of life; however, the redeeming part is that we all have opportunity to emerge from the darkness and stand in the light.

Everyone has something to give. We might need to reach down deep under the layers of life to restore the brilliance, but, I am certain, it is there.