I’ve been signing off letters “without wax” these days. No, it isn’t my way of informing someone why I haven’t waxed (not that I haven’t.. ahem )... No, I wasn’t being cheeky or being lamely funny (maybe I was). Anyways, why “without wax”.. Well, Vickie dear, here’s my explanation..

Thanks to Dan Brown, the master of literature, the shi-fu in mind manipulation thru mere words, I came upon the true beauty of the phrase. Hah! I exaggerate, but yes, I guess this is the most appropriate way to start. You know, giving credit to the one who introduced me to my current amusement.

Who would have guessed that the mere words “without wax” was something everyone took for granted these days. Like honey one spreads on their French toasts and pancakes, like the beautiful sculptures one finds on the fountains of Italy, when I say without wax, what I simply mean is I mean what I say.

Baffling?

Honestly, the secret behind without wax is too sweet. Its origins were ancient, truly.

But I’ll just let Dan Brown explain.

“During the Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while carving expensive marble often patched their flaws with cera – ‘wax’. A statute that had no flaws and required no patching was hailed as a ‘sculpture sin cera’ or a ‘sculpture without wax’.”

Yup! A simple explanation, for a simple fact. So it really wasn’t funny whenever I signed off with “without wax”. I was merely saying “sincerely”. Like how most of us would sign off their letters... well, the more articulate ones among us that is. Lol.

After reading about it from Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress, I went online with “without wax” in mind. Lo and behold.. the amount of sites relating to “without wax” was without wax surprising.

Apparently, the Greek word translated “sincere” as Anupokritos. The last part of the word is our word hypocrite. The prefix “an” means “without”. So the Greek word actually means, “without hypocrisy”. In classical Greek the word “hypocrite” meant someone who wore a mask in a play.

Without a mask. Without deceit. Without fraud. Without wax.

But brush off the origins of the word “sincere”, without wax truly goes to another level when one sees it in a different light. Why do we have to go so way back in time to understand? Ironically, this simple explanation could literally be found in our very on home. Take honey for example. A pure honey, as I was told, is one from which all the wax has been strained. The lesser wax there is, the purer it becomes.

Purity.. ah, nice word ain’t it. I would love to add on another fact about wax and its relation with a woman. However, I think I shall keep that particular point to myself. Every woman has to have her mystery doesn’t she? With or without wax...