The waiter carefully places the bottle on our table, omitting to ask if the vintage is acceptable. He doesn´t even bother to open the bottle, let the contents be sampled, or otherwise invite any expression of approval or disapproval. He doesn´t have to, for he knows he has made an excellent choice.
The setting is not a dinner table at a restaurant. The waiter is not a waiter. The bottle is not a wine bottle. And I am not taking anyone out today. I am an interpreter in an interpreters’ booth. The waiter is my fellow interpreter. And the bottle is a container for mineral water. It just so happens that my colleague´s suit and tie, the way he holds the bottle, and the posh label remind me of a restaurant setting. But other than that, there is hardly any comparison with a restaurant situation. In fact, the text on the bottle reminds me of something completely different than a dinner. The manufacturer (if you can use that word at all for a company that pumps water from springs and puts it in bottles), Hildon, used an interesting description for the kind of water they put in this particular bottle. In elegant lettering the label reads: DELIGHTFULLY STILL.
That struck me as unusual. You see all kinds of descriptions, usually in one word – still, sparkling, fizzy, carbonated. But delightfully still was new to me. It made me think. There is something about the word still that is attractive all by itself. It reminds one of peace and quiet, silence, softness. But the word delightfully adds a whole new dimension to it. Instead of still being just the opposite of carbonated, with the word delightfully in front of it, it suddenly becomes a suggestion that instead of leaving something out, you are getting something extra. Like the chance to enjoy, to take pleasure in the stillness of this spring water from England.
Apparently stillness really is something we can relish. Not just in water, but in many things. Still waters are safer than rough seas. Still tongues make wise heads. Stillness is soothing, calming, pacifying. I suppose we all need some stillness now and then. Some peace, some being away from the rat race of life. Some quiet pause amid the noise pollution of modern society.
And heaven knows we need things to be delightfully still. There is simply too much noise, too much hustle and bustle. Modern life asks ever more of us. We need to do more, be away more, travel more, be available more – yes, even day and night, it seems. Has anyone ever said to you: Why didn´t you have your mobile phone on? Sounds familiar, doesn´t it? You are expected to be available at all times, to jump to attention whenever or wherever horrible, simplified electronic renderings of familiar tunes and melodies rudely interrupt you in whatever activity it was you were engaged in. In my own country I´ve heard people complaining that you cannot really go anywhere without hearing traffic. But nowadays you can even hardly go anywhere anymore without hearing people making phonecalls. A whole new kind of noise pollution!
No, really, it may just be a bottle label, but “Delightfully Still” really appeals to me. I like it a lot. And, although I don´t think it motivates me to just drink Hildon spring water from now on, I do mean to find more things in life that are just as delightfully still.
