Of bowing (galante)

Let us consider for a moment that gallant of movements… bowing. I stop before you, standing in that position which only man has above all animals, our eyes meet and we’re at the same level. Only then, strangely enough, I curve my back bringing my head down and I stop there, bringing my arm to my chest and looking straight at the ground… our eyes no longer meet, we are no longer at the same level.
Bowing is one movement that exists in most of the known cultures in our world (again I say, I will not say all the cultures because I will not have the presumption to say I know them all… although I have the ambition) but it has slowly grown more and more out of use. In older times, those much before my own, bowing was a very common gesture to be had with many different meanings. Brief greeting, courtship, show of respect, act of thanks, proof of humility… so many meanings and yet so many have fallen to waste. So rare nowadays to see someone bow...
In the occident, very few people still bow to one another. Perhaps it was the effect of change in our society. Are we so afraid of putting ourselves below someone that we refuse to ever bow?
In these days, I have to say I know only one type of person that will bow with some regularity: an artist. You hear the clapping, you end your performance, you reveal your heart and art… and you bow. Why would people who show such greatness, such beauty be the ones to bow before an audience? Do we consider so little of ourselves?
The way I see it, is perhaps a different one. Bowing is, indeed, putting yourself below a person; lowering you head to show your humility or your thanks. But even so it is not a way to show your inferiority… much the contrary actually. The way I see it, it’s all matter of where you’re seeing it. In a place where the heavens would be your standing ground and the earth would be the far away firmament, bowing would be putting yourself above the one you bow to.
An artist shows humility when he bows… humility is a great virtue, one that few people have. To achieve greatness, to create beauty and art and yet be humble… it is a very enlightened thing to do.
It is true that when I bow I’m no longer at your level… but which level is that? Is it a lower level because I’m closer to the ground, or is it a higher level because I have given proof of my humility… because I do not feel ashamed to put myself below you?
I have referred in a previous text that although clapping one’s hands is a sign of humility but that, even so, bowing is infinitely more embarrassing. Indeed that is true… but to whom is it more embarrassing… he who bows or he who is bowed to?
If I should bow to you… would you not feel embarrassed? How to react to such a thing? It is such an unusual thing to do. I just stay like that… saying nothing, as if waiting for you to do something. So what should you do?
There is only one thing you can do, I believe. There is only one way for us to be again at the same level, be it a lower or a higher one: you must bow as well.
Strange isn’t it? You bow to show humility and yet what you’re doing is also a challenge to the other person. The true meaning of a bow is in fact to challenge one’s humility. It challenges the one who bows first because of the awkward situation it results in but it also challenges the one who is bowed too because that same person must show his own humility as not to seem arrogant.
I feel sorry for the way that bowing has fallen out of use. Romantic and perhaps over-poetic as it may be… my idea of bowing is based on the hope that there still is some humility left in the world. That there still exists the chance for us to understand that all our achievements, grand as they may be, do not erase our own limits, do not ease the burden of our own insignificance.
There will always be the need to bow before one and all… because, in the end, when you bow, you will always be bowing before yourself. You will forever need to bow before the image that you have of yourself beacause that image will always be superior to yourself.
But, the beauty in it is that when you bow to yourself you are showing your superiority. When you bow to yourself, to that image you have of yourself, you’re forcing it to bow to you. Therefore your limits will always be a reflection of your achievements.
I bow before myself knowing that I’m accepting my limits not as obstacles but as lines that will guide me to push myself forwards.
I bow before you hoping that you will do the same and in doing so we’ll be equals as humans with the same ambitions and yet the same humility.
I bow before humanity… and yet… I’m not sure that it will bow back to me…
Thank you.

Dedicated to
The one I shall never be ashamed to bow to.



PS- For this time I have chosen english as my medium because I wanted to reached a more varied audience. Although I will still be writing in Portuguese, some of my posts will form now on be also written in English. I hope this does not displease my more usual readers (if I should have any).