this post is dedicated to the Silver Surfer.
I don't consider myself a flashy person, but I do have a few key pieces of jewelry namely Mithri- I mean Silver. Sterling silver.
I don't know why but I was always drawn to silver. One of the first things I bought for myself with money I had earned on my own was a silver Jesus piece and chain.
Call it intuition, I don't know but it just occurred to me that I wanted/needed a silver something, and havn't looked back since. A couple bulky silver biker rings that I rarely wear now because they get in the way and a low key silver nose stud round out my flashy collection.
One thing about silver is that it has to be periodically cleaned, which I am doing as we speak. Hence the post.
>Just for posterity sake: take aluminum foil, line the inside of a pot or bowl, put your silver pieces, lay it on the foil making sure it is actually touching the foil. Add a bunch of baking soda, a thing of boiling hot water, toss in vinegar and table salt. Enjoy the bubbles. table salt optional but the other two are not. let sit for many minutes. several even.
I'm not a master alchemist, or a Chemist. Measuring is beyond the scope of my capabilities, so what I always do is something they call EYEballing it.
I can't even tell you estimated proportions because instead of letting it sit, I tend to mess with the thing while its having a reaction, adding more baking soda here, vinegar there,
I like the bubbles sue me.
Anyways, it's not a complicated or dangerous process so I'm sure ill be fine.
It's pretty neat to observe closely, and imagining the chemical reaction taking place
As I understand it, it's not built up 'gunk' but that the outer layer of the silver layer has literally changed, and what this process does here is, change it back.
HEALing, the silver, if you will.
And the results speak for themselves.
Just made me realize, how you don't realize HOW messed up things have gotten sometimes because you've now got used to a shit situation, and this is "normal" now.
Also,
Silver as you all know, is another one of those elements that is seemingly universally praised (kind of like garlic) by all human cultures, with a laundry list of unique properties both physical and metaphysical that many people swear by including but not limited to,
-Conducting electricity really really really well (the best, or so I hear)
-Channeling magic, which is basically conducting electricity, no? Everything being energy and all.
-Warding or protecting from evil. Take that as you will, but I can't off the top think of any culture that Doesn't have silver being associated with the "good guys".
-Healing, with literal antibacterial properties.
-Also Purity. Holy water is usually to do with silver.
-Many Gods are associated with silver, especially Sun and Moon gods
So silver supposedly purifies, heals, protects against both vampires and gingivitis, favored by the gods, and yes it does require cleaning but it will never "fall apart" or "rust away", as it is extremely stable.
Which I guess kinds of brings us full circle to why I stopped messing with the grade school level science experiment with the bubbles to write this:
Again, the silver itself is definitely not "rusting" because silver doesn't do that.
So where is all this gunk coming from?
It's not "oils from the body rubbing off" or anything like that.
I mean, ok there is a word for it, Tarnish, separating it from rust by the fact that the oxidation only effects the outer layer. A fine explanation to be sure.
But just going by personal anecdotal evidence I can't help but feel that this explanation is inadequate.
Maybe its just in my head but I definitely feel better, purified even, when my silver has been freshly cleaned of the corrupti- i mean corrosion.
And maybe it's just me being a superstitious little twit but I definitely feel safer when I have the chain on.
https://www.skymetweather.com/content/advisory-articles/cooling-properties-of-silver/
This is a neat article that talks about the cooling properties of silver (yea man it works). But more importantly, it highlights the fact that silver definitely has some interaction with our central nervous system, in a way that is palpable. In layman's terms, the Silver by some virtue of its nature, literally sucks the heat out, cooling one down.
>best conductor of electricity
>anti bacterial
>anti darkness
>sucks heat out of our CNS, who knows what else..
It occured to me that, this corrosion, this corruption, maybe alot of it was sucked directly out of me?
And since silver is fucking boss, which is say, surface layers not withstanding, silver is incorruptible, pure, blameless, "without Sin", if you will.
But even though Silver is divine, it will gladly take on the "sins" it sucks out of the air or whatever its into sucking, and take the burden all while remaining pure at its core.
I think there was a movie about this, Superman was it?
Anyways, I clean only once a year if that, but everytime I am flabbergasted by how I had forgotten, that natural SHINE silver has when it has been baptized in household cooking items.
You never realize how shitty something is if it has become the new "normal", but that doesn't mean it IS normal. or moral. or not that big of a deal.
It is a BIG freaking deal, and the fact that more people are not upset really gets me sometimes.. if they only remembered, how they used to SHINE.
Jesus wept.
what were we talking about again?