Ignorance is Bliss
That Little Voice
It takes an interpreter to go shopping these days.
A stroll through a department store is like entering a land where fabrics hang like strange apparitions teasing one’s imagination. The problem is, my imagination just doesn’t go where these styles reside.
Call me traditional, old fashioned or unhip. Whatever category I fit into does not include today’s hot hits. I must add, my taste in music doesn’t jive with the modern rap inspirations either.
What is interesting are the different style of frames for eyeglasses. I don’t believe we have ever had such a wide selection of frames from which to choose. Now you can have pink and green framing your left eye and red and blue around the other. Who would ever wear something like that. Apparently some of my friends, since that’s where I saw a pair like that and wondered if she had been to an out of this world art fair on another planet. She assured me the optical place had ‘tons’ of frames similar to hers. And I thought my mother was cruel when she had my sister and me wearing plaid frames for several years.
Back to my clothing confusion. My curiosity required that I ask a sales person to explain some of the outfits I was viewing. I couldn’t tell what they were, how to wear them, why to wear them, and where to wear them. She politely suggested I go to another part of the store where the ‘old ladies’ garments were housed.
But I really wanted to understand these current trends in dressing. What is this sheer ‘thing’ that is open in the back like a hospital gown, but hides nothing in the front either? And this flimsy, wispy, not even filmy, top that leaves little to the imagination?
And trust me, I need outfits that leave A LOT to one’s imagination. Exposure of my body isn’t for the faint of heart! I leave my glasses off when viewing myself in a mirror, to avoid seeing some of the obvious details that can’t be covered up with a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.
I’m not embarrassed about my body…well, that isn’t exactly true. Of course I’m self conscious about the shifting, settling, bulging that has taken place over the past 81 years. I saw a picture of myself when I was 40. I weighed 114, ran six miles a day, and had long hair.
Today, I don’t weigh 114 pounds, I don’t run 6 miles a day, and I have a burr haircut. I feel fortunate to walk two to three miles a day without a cane. I am delighted that I don’t have to spend more than 5 seconds on my hair. And I don’t own any scales. Ignorance is indeed bliss.