When I heard it would be a shiny shoe, I was skeptical. My mind was flooded with images of a full-blown holographic trainer. But, as soon as the box landed on my doorstep I could breathe again.

What makes one shine shoes for a living? Is it a job that people take just out of desperation and poverty, or can it be a craft? An art form, even? Can shining someone else’s shoes be healing ...