On the softest things, softly

Talcum powder. It is soft, isn’t it? Just shake a bit of it onto your palm. Now close your eyes. Do you feel it? If you don’t, rub some between your fingers. Soft.

There are many softnesses in this world. Soft music, soft sand, soft hands, soft toys, soft hearts, soft spoken etc. Sometimes ‘soft’ is actually used to say something bad about someone: he’s soft in the head, she’s a softie, 

In general it is taken to be the opposite of ‘hard’ and that’s supposed to be good, except of course if you are talking about a building or some element of construction. A soft foundation would make a building collapse, after all.

‘Soft.’ Close your eyes and say it. Say it real slow. Say it as a whisper. Let us roll around and off your tongue. It should feel soft. That’s because we know the meaning of the word, but it could also be that the word or rather its sound goes well with the meaning. 

Like the word ‘bang’. If you look up the word for ‘bang’ in another language, you’ll realize that sometimes words are made or coined, as they say, so that their sounds give us a strong hint about the meaning. Sometimes it’s the sound, but sometimes it is the color. Like ‘orange’ or thambili or alu-kehel (ash plantain).

Anyway, let’s get back to soft and softness. Think of soft things. Let’s see. Pillows and mattresses come to mind. Even clouds look soft. Mist too. Dew drops? Maybe. There’s cottonwool of course. You can make a longer list, I’m sure.

Sometimes we think of ‘soft’ or rather use the word ‘softer’ in relation to something else. Ebony and Naa (that’s our National Tree, Ceylon Ironwood) are hard, but there are lots of trees whose timber is softer and easily shaved or sawed. 

The paper of a napkin is soft, but the paper in an exercise book is not as soft. However, even such a page is softer than, say, cardboard. A pudding has a soft texture and almost melts in the mouth, but ‘kiri topi’ (milk-toffee) is hard and bulto (if you've ever had one) is even harder. Gravel is hard, beach sand is soft. You can go on and on. 

So there are degree of softness.  

What’s interesting is that words such as ‘soft’ have many uses and not only for objects we can hold or touch or see. We have heard people say ‘She has soft ways,’ haven’t we? ‘Such soft eyes!’ I have heard people exclaim. 

Have you thought of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’? Not just things, but feelings, thoughts and even attitudes? If you were planning to lift a kitten, would you have ‘hard hands’ or ‘soft hands’? It’s the same hands you use, right? But there are different ways you can use those same hands. There are many ways you can use words, there are different tones you can use. You can be hard and you can be soft. 

That’s all about textures. And it’s not only things that have textures. Softness — it’s a good thing to think about. Softly.

Several years ago, I wrote a regular column for the JEANS section of 'The Nation'.  The editor of JEANS, Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna now handles the 'Littlestars' tabloid distributed with 'The Sunday Morning'. This is the eighteenth article for Littlestars.  Scroll down to find the full series of articles written for JEANS and the those of this new series.

Articles for THE SUNDAY MORNING

Ukku Banda loved and gave, lived and died

The power of 'sorry'

You could stomp on an anthill or saving a drowning ant

Have you ever been at boiling point?

A tree has clues that lead to a treasure

Listen! You will be rewarded...

Keep things sorted so you can wreck things more efficiently!

Is charcoal black, red or purple?

Homework can change your life, really

The language of chairs, pens and kites

Have you ever seen a worn-out grandmother?

Who really makes clouds and why do shadows keep moving?

Shall we try being differently-abled

Distance is a toy

There are games you can play with the rain

Articles for THE NATION
There's a secret friend waiting for you

Ignorance is an exciting thing!

Un-cluttering is an art

It begins with the first soiled spoon

You have loads of time, you know

A puddle is a canvas

Venus-Serena tied at love-all
Some jokes are not funny
There's an ant story waiting for you
And you can be a rainbow-maker
Trees are noble teachers
On cloudless nights the moon is a hole
Gulp down those hurtful words
A question is a boat, a jet, a space-ship or a heart
Quotes can take you far but they can also stop you
No one is weak
The fisherman in a black shirt
Let's celebrate Nelli and Nelliness
Ready for time travel?
Puddles look back at you, did you know?
What's the view like from your door?
The world is rearranged by silhouettes
How would you paint the sky?
It is cool to slosh around
You can compose your own music
Pebbles are amazing things
You can fly if you want to
The happiest days of our lives
So what do you want to do with the rain?
Still looking for that secret passage?
Maybe we should respect the dust we walk on
Numbers are beautiful 
There are libraries everywhere 
Collect something crazy
Fragments speak of a thousand stories 
The games you can and cannot play with rice
The magic of the road less-traveled
Have you ever thought of forgiving?
Wallflowers are pretty, aren't they?
What kind of friend do you want to be? 
Noticed the countless butterflies around you?
It's great to chase rainbows
In praise of 'lesser' creatures 
A mango is a book did you know?
Expressions are interesting things
How many pairs of eyes do you need?
So no one likes you?
There is magic in faraway lights
The thambilil-seller of Giriulla
When people won't listen, things will
Lessons of the seven-times table