February '20

The symptoms are always the same. One colleague hears a spiteful comment on our recent sock model and shares this disheartening fact with the other councilors. And so Hubert Ponožka, our secretary, decided to convince his colleagues once and for all that they must not be overly sensitive, since we in Ponožkovice may also at times fail to appreciate all that is important.

Hubert often goes for many walks through the forest, clad in socks only and pensively staring at their meaningful pattern. Then he had an epiphany: Mud, dirt, soil. The uppermost solid layer of our Mother Earth is exactly what I have been looking for.

The mixture of eroded rock, water, air and organic matter is the sole essence of life not only for humanity, but also for all land-based nature. In spite of its vital function, throwing mud and being as clear as mud have only negative connotations. In some languages, the words for dirt can refer to both soil and filth, sometimes even worse.

Hubert had to cope with the objection that while soil enables life, it is also thoroughly boring in terms of colorfulness. Quite the contrary, he countered! Currently, there are over twenty thousand classified types of soil and color is one of the main means of distinction. Hubert hit the nail on the head. The councilors carefully admitted that the dozens of thousands of shades of brown are definitely worth mentioning. Actually, they are worth inspiring a sock.