The Importance of Shoe Polish

Weird as it may sound, my life here in Cambridge has led me to appreciate the value of something that I never paid the slightest attention to previously: shoe polish. For most of my life, shoe polish was something that I used at incredibly infrequent intervals; I just didn't wear my dress shoes often enough to ever get them dirty. In fact, the most challenging thing about shoe polish was actually finding the stuff-- I would have to dig through all of my closets and most of the way through the basement in order to locate the ancient and much-neglected can.

Here in Cambridge, however, shoe polish is a critical commodity. Both kids wear "nice" shoes to school, and more importantly, both kids run around outside in the mud and muck during recess getting their (leather) shoes good and wet. Ethan's shoes in particular are a complete wreck by the end of the week; in addition to running around in them, he also plays soccer in them. I have to first dry them out for a day by setting them on the radiator, then when they are no longer soaking, it's time to hit them hard with the black shoe polish. It's actually kind of amazing that it works as well as it does: at the end of the process, you get back a pair of shoes that actually looks somewhat decent, or at least looks something like a real shoe, and not a muddy/soggy lump. This phoenix-like rebirth never ceases to amaze me.