When you hold a glass upwards and clink with another, the point would be — “what, exactly, are you doing?”
I’ve thought about that — being someone that doesn’t drink — what really is the point of that effort, the convivial “clinking?”
I wonder, does it relate to the celebration of living, of “having water” to drink – survival? What could toast be, to the nature of the word? I think of Douglas Harper — ask him, his take: “a call to drink to someone’s health,” 1700 (but said by Steele, 1709, to date to the reign of Charles II), originally referring to the beautiful or popular woman whose health is proposed and drunk, from the use of spiced toast to flavor drink, the lady regarded as figuratively adding piquancy to the wine in which her health was drunk. The verb meaning “to propose or drink a toast” also is first recorded 1700.
Only three hundred years in the making.
Yesterday, shooting hands and glasses, exploring a dimensionality of that gesture (for a project) it gave me cause to wander and wonder about the meaning.
Personally, I like the sound, the scent, the splash — and the music-making of one group, in resonant song, harmony — in a ring, they laud…
There is a bell note, the vibration, the rhythm of people — being two-gathered. Four, squared; six – ringed; eight celebrate.
Ching!
t | pike place market
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GIRVIN | BRAND ETIQUETTE
SEEKING INSIGHTS IN HUMAN ACTIONS
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