It's been a while since I posted last. I wanted to write something about the jacket I have been repairing for someone. The jacket is years and years old and to be honest it does not feel nice to touch by anyone else but the owner because it's so old and so imbued with his smell and secretions that I'm sure it has an animal life of its own. It's crusty and smells if sweat when you iron it. And it made me think about our vulnerability and need for attachment. There are so many articles right now about feng shui and getting rid of stuff on a regular basis as a means of generating changes and letting go of the past. There's something human about holding on to things though. I wonder how the owner of the jacket felt when he was told that this was the last time he was going to be able to repair it. Will he come to terms with it or will he try to repair it himself despite the fact that the jacket is quite crusty with dirt and bits of skin? For me personally clothes offered some kind of continuity and comfort at times when it was hard to go on without any bearings. They mapped out my history even when other continuities were broken. And now when I feel like I can let them go because other parts of my life feel more established and concrete, like my creativity is not something passive and just a background to my life it is a phase which I have proudly reached and which signals a kind of maturity (and this might warrant a new wardrobe). I might not get rid of everything but that's because I truly don't want to because I am accepting of my own progress and my own humanness which I want to explore.
