I was wrong

A couple of months ago, I got in a conversation with some people, mostly James and Mihir, about the meaning of the world “kowtow.” I argued that the word had a pejorative aspect of obsequiousness based in part on my personal prejudices about the nature of supplication and also because the sound of the word evoked in me the idiom of “toeing the line” which has to do with conformity. My understanding of the word, though, came entirely from these abstract associations because I’d never actually kowtowed before. I jumped straight to some figurative understanding of the word without first grasping what it meant literally. Well what do you know I found myself at a funeral a few days ago and I was unexpectedly called to the front during the ceremony to lead my younger cousins in bowing and kowtowing to the deceased. I experienced then that the act of kowtow, kneeling and touching my head to the ground, was to put myself so low physically as to show reverence without pretension, subtext, or ego. We all know that experience enriches and explains language. I was wrong.