Affliction Apparel

I crossed a threshold this week.  A right of passage if you will.  No it wasn't a heart stopping moment of WHOA. Nor was it is a stop in your tracks, through the heart realization of something larger than us.  It was socks and sandals.  Yeah, that's it; white, cotton socks peeking out from open toed sandals.

It was in this incident I crossed into the "I know what my fashion says and I don't care despite what you think and all the bad looks you're giving me. No really I don't care." area. No, I didn't actually go out in public wearing that monstrosity, I mean, I have a rep to protect.

I was in my front yard, doing yard work in shorts, no shirt (scary I know) and socks with sandals.  Raking, weed-eating, and mowing, for all the world to see, or at least those who drove down my suburban street...which seemed to be heavily populated that day.  There, in the bounds of my property I made the leap to not caring what I looked liked, and let me tell you it was both exhilarating and relaxing.  I stared norms, standards, and etiquette in the eyes and then punched conventionality square in the jaw.  Wow, that's both violent and visual.  Too bad for our light hearted listeners.

Truth is, I did it for a reason.  I recent cut my heel, pretty deeply, and with every step it would open back up.  I finally cleaned it out very good and put some butterfly bandaids on it.  I needed to do yard work and I don't have any closed toed work shoes my hippie at heart self could in good conscience wear.  My only option for cleanliness was throwing on those old man identifiers with my Chacos and going to town on that yard.  So I did.

Got me thinking about the critical heart I've had at times when I see people I would deem not "with it" with public interactions.  No one but them knows if it is a choice made for a good reason...even if that reason it to not buy into the majority.  Comfort, Style, Misbegotten idea of style (like Hawaiian shirts in the  continental 49, whoops, there I go again), all of these are done for a reason, and a critical thought or comment can only serve to diminish them as a human being.  And for that, I'm sorry.  For no one should be thought less of nor subjected to feeling less because of someone else.  So, with my head held high, I will step into the world with my metaphorical socks and sandals and encourage all us "misfits" to be bold and be ourselves!