I confess. I am a fashion critic. When something looks terrible, I wonder what s/he were thinking when s/he walked out the door. I know others have asked me from boring, weird, and simply does-not-work perspectives. Reflection is good, even if one thought it made sense when one took a last glance in the mirror.
“Some clothes should not be worn by a man past the age of eighteen. Those jeans do not work, especially at his age.”
The echo in my mind was an old one. A friend repeats it to me every so often, although it has been months since I last heard it. On this afternoon along Far East Square the sound within my mind was overwhelming. What was he thinking? Did he have any idea what he was doing? Did he think he looked good?
I had no idea. There was no obvious problem. The jeans fit, at least as well as they could. The person in question was not overweight. As I watched, I realized he was walking like he was sixteen. The challenge for me was that he was easily thirty plus.
The curious part of me wanted to ask. Even as I thought about my approach, I realized I was not sure where I could start. Would I dive into the question of fashion? Was it best to approach the fashion question last, start with something safe?
I slowly realized that the jeans were a trigger for what I wanted to ask. “What is your story?”
Tell me about yourself. What are your passions? Where have you been? Where do you want to go? What is your role in the story you are writing?
The last question is at the heart. What is your role? Old writers noted that we were made to be “lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.” (Psalm 8.7, 8) Their view was one of responsibility and action. I still wonder about his story. For now, I will examine mine.
