No Wax

     I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be blogging about, but I thought that it might help you a little to understand my motive and “sign off.”  I heard a story when I was in high school about integrity that has stuck with me to this day, so I just thought I’d let you in on it.  Hopefully, it tells you something about me.

     It seems that back in the day, Greek vendors of pottery attempted to sell their products, their jars of clay and various other earthen vessels to the public.  As capitalism has it, they wanted make the best product at the lowest cost to themselves.  As it happens, clay didn’t always mold and bake the way it was supposed to.  Sometimes, the clay cracked in the kiln.  When it did, the vendors had a decision to make, for inginuity taught the potters a short cut.  They could melt wax, use it to fill in those cracks, then paint the jar so as to make it seem true.  Customers would have a difficult time knowing what had been done, for the wax would hold temporarily.  After the purchase, when the customer actually used the vessel for storing liquid, they would find that between the heat and water the wax washed away.  The cracks leaked, and the customers got wise to game the vendors were playing. 

     The most ethical vendors never sold the fractured vessels.  They wouldn’t have, cause it just wouldn’t have been right.  They knew the wax trick, but chose to do right by their customers.  In order to sell their products, they employed a certain method of honest advertising.  Next to their jars of clay, they attached signs that read “sinceros,” which Greek means “without wax.”  We, of course, get our word “sincere” from this term, so when I close my posts made of makeshift wings, I will forever sign off with…

No Wax,

A. Brannon Schwamlein