Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
My New Year’s Eve Message
Polish your boots.
They’re not going to polish themselves.
And stop thinking that not polishing them makes them and you look more badass than you are. You can be badass and have polished boots. You can be a polished badass. The best kind.
Besides, snapping the lids off the shoe polish in the little tins will make you feel like you grew up in the last century when men spent Sunday night polishing their shoes to get ready for the week. Can’t you just see that old piece of your dad’s boxers covered with dried-on shoe polish and how he’d twist that rag to swipe out some black or brown or cordovan polish and then rub it hard into his shoes and then wait a minute or two and then go after each shoe with a shoe brush and then the fuzzy polisher, how he’d hold each shoe up to the light to admire the shine and just buff and buff and buff while he watched the game on TV?
It’s New Year’s Eve. Start the new year right. Polish your boots.
3 Comments on “My New Year’s Eve Message”
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
 | Beth on Durant Diary: Entry #11 |
 | joviald3f8e0e214 on Durant Diary: Entry #11 |
 | Sarah Klahn on Durant Diary: Entry #11 |
 | Ruth on Durant Diary: Entry #11 |
 | Vickie on Durant Diary: Entry #11 |
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
<3
I was taught to polish dad’s work shoes. As a manager who wore suits every day he always had to look spiffy. I got really good at polishing, at least in my opinion!
I too was tasked with polishing my father’s shoes. At the time it gave me a feeling of being important to him….but that too passed away.