When Your Clothes Lied!
In my culture, for many Jamaicans, looking good is more important than water.
Inspired by:
Reading How Clothes Make the Man, Though the Man Picked the Clothes, by Ted Czukor.
The door to my memory flew open.
I was looking very good. For the first time in over a year, I went out wearing pressed suit trousers and a nice shirt. I was looking for a part-time job and wanted to make a good impression.
In my culture, for some people, looking good is more important than water.
I kid you not!
Some of the poorest people wore the most expensive clothing. I study my people while growing up and how looking good is valuable to them. I have wondered about that for years as their well-dressed or looking-good habit halted their road to success allowing poverty to linger.
What is the value of looking good if I am still living in poverty?
What is the value of owning expensive clothing if I live in a dilapidated shack, where the roof leaks, the area has a high crime rate, etc.?
Someone will steal your clothes too.
What is the value of looking good if it cannot be maintained?
I wondered about this in my teens.
I didn’t see the sense in looking good some of the time. Whatever your goal or aim is, you will need resources to maintain it.
I can take you to hell where some of the best-dressed humans live and their expensive clothing is the only asset they have. Which will go out of style tomorrow.
Immediately I experienced the old familiar misperception on the part of strangers, that I have money.
How a person dresses often confuses many shallow-thinking humans. Well dress, to many, means you are wealthy, decent, respectable, honest, good, from a good home or standing, etc., even if they don’t know you from Adams. Few deep-thinking humans who listen to their instincts aren’t afraid to go beyond the surface and can read emotions to see whether you are coming from hell or heaven.
Still hanging on to my childish curiosity, I can.
Ted says: But my lying clothes told a different story.
I witnessed long-term relationships burn and end to sharper dressing males and females, who had nothing but look like a million bucks. I have seen both sexes cheat on their loved ones, destroying a good relationship because of the lies clothes tell. I taste, feel, and understand the destruction and damage ‘lying clothes’ do. Females getting raped and persons losing their life savings deceived by lying clothes.
As a landlord, I have tenants who dress expensively and can’t pay me my rent and water bills when they are due.
Our clothes sometimes do tell the truth, but the truth, demands extracurricular activities. More innovation, creativity, weird imagination, curiosity, deep thinking, instincts that are alive, and more. Many people hide behind their well-dressed attire sending a false message of hope and power.
Who got the time to search for the truth?
The nice side of the misperception is that complete strangers said hello to me, asked how I was doing, and sat beside me in a waiting room (I kid you not!) — which they never do when I’m wearing jeans and haven’t shaved.
You are wondering if clothes make a man. Yes, you are, because many crimes occur by well-dressed humans who weren’t perceived as a threat until after the damage is done. Human senses are alerted by how a person is dressed.
Well-dressed reveals fake people too. It pulls attention to you and many humans become addicted to it. Thus a life of looking good all of the time, by any means necessary became a habit. A costly one for many.
Immediately I experienced the old familiar misperception on the part of strangers, that I have money.
A well-dressed person can get away with many things in certain areas of life and places they go. Wealth is attached to looking good. Many humans get fooled that way. Fake friendships are formed too because of the lies clothes tell.
I prefer it when they think I’m a bum. They leave me alone, and nobody embarrasses me. I’m not used to this attention!
I really hate dressing up and only do it when my life depends on it. Meaning if the occasion calls for it, I have the resources to accommodate it. I go out of my way to avoid these occasions. I am comfortable in regular clothing.
Life showed me that by living good, I will end up looking good anyway. Which will last.
I love this Ted, thanks for the inspiration.
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