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Archaeology of shirts
Aug. 5th, 2013 08:29 amThis morning I was looking at my button-down shirts trying to decide what to wear to work. I spotted a shirt that I didn't remember. How very odd! I pulled the shirt out and looked at it more closely, but I didn't recognize it at all. Feeling confused, I put it back, and there beside it was another shirt I didn't recognize. Ah, but beside that was one that I did remember wearing years ago. Lo and behold, one after another, I discovered a whole series of shirts that I had worn in the past and that have been hanging there invisible to me for years. In all there were probably a dozen shirts like that. I see that collars were wider a few years ago.
I think the way this has happened is that when my button-own shirts approach the end of their life cycle, I tend to put my favorite ones off to the side in case I want to wear them "one last time" at some point. And then I forget about them. Some of these shirts look like they've been hanging there for over a decade. No wonder I can't remember them!
The shirts themselves aren't of any interest to me; it's the mental process that fascinates. It's the way that things can become invisible to me because I lose interest in them or have no use for them. Denys and I have talked before about how there are drawers in our kitchen that we don't look in for years at a time, full of stuff we never use. But it's also the way that I apparently couldn't bear to part with these shirts and yet still completely lost sight of them.
It was a huge jolt this morning when the shirts decloaked, as it were. "Oh, hello! Why am I hoarding you? Gosh, if I got rid of you, maybe my shirts wouldn't seem so packed in here!"
I think the way this has happened is that when my button-own shirts approach the end of their life cycle, I tend to put my favorite ones off to the side in case I want to wear them "one last time" at some point. And then I forget about them. Some of these shirts look like they've been hanging there for over a decade. No wonder I can't remember them!
The shirts themselves aren't of any interest to me; it's the mental process that fascinates. It's the way that things can become invisible to me because I lose interest in them or have no use for them. Denys and I have talked before about how there are drawers in our kitchen that we don't look in for years at a time, full of stuff we never use. But it's also the way that I apparently couldn't bear to part with these shirts and yet still completely lost sight of them.
It was a huge jolt this morning when the shirts decloaked, as it were. "Oh, hello! Why am I hoarding you? Gosh, if I got rid of you, maybe my shirts wouldn't seem so packed in here!"
