Please don't judge me by the clothes I wear.
We live just 10 minutes by car from where our business premises were situated before we closed 23 years ago, yet were' still recognized and fairly well known to this day.
Whenever I'm out and about, inevitably with my wife, I like to wear clean smart casual comfortable clothes for my own, and only for my own personal benefit, well, perhaps for my wife's benefit also. I discovered dressing in this manner gives me a boost while making me feel better about myself and brightens up my mind.... it genuinely does.
We don't know how this came about, however, any ex-client spotting us will invariably stop us for a chat, which is extremely kind. Now, we find the following extraordinary, humorous even, their initial reaction and words are inevitably the same, they'll look me up and down with an incredulous look while declaring "I\we, heard you were very ill". Somehow, obviously, they've gained knowledge of my health issues. I never quiz them, never replying with words similar to "how on earth did you know about that" or words of that nature, so we're still unaware how they discovered this to be the case.
I do know why that's their first reaction. They have visions of all elderly (we don't feel elderly. btw) folk with health issues, walking around with despondency oozing from their demeanor.
Some elderly folk will obviously have far more serious health problems than mine which they find incredibly hard to cope with, so we must never (my wife and I) scorn or looked down upon. I've simply or should I say, spectacularly been blessed to eventually have the frame of mind God has afforded. I'm very very humbled by that and always respect those who are not as fortunate as me. (there but for the Grace of God......)
I've to rely on a walking stick whenever I'm out walking. I use the ordinary common or garden stick with a curved handle, however, one day I spotted a rather nice quality black walking stick with comfortable chrome handle for sale......I bought it. Using it is not borne out of pride, it simply makes me feel so much better within myself, more relaxed, and doesn't have the effect of continually making me feel like an old fogey as the old wooden walking stick could do at times. As with many many many folks my age, we simply do not feel our age, if it did, it would surely alter the course of the mind
Now, this is important to me, I refuse to walk around bearing drooped shoulders, woe is me look about me. Doing so would make me feel like my dear departed parents who yearned sympathy for everything they did in life.
Looking for sympathy is a trait I just cannot get my head around. In fact, my parents would portray themselves as much older than they actually were. I'm aware that in post-war years, 50-60 year-olds would have been considered old, but my father claimed, and I quote "both your mother and I are on our way out" when they both were in their mid 40's
They're both gone now, and though I was scared stiff of my father, (as was my elder brother, that's another story to tell) I'm not attempting to trash or disrespect his or my mother's memory.
I'm unsure who will understand, "I dress for my own benefit and nobody else"..... I actually genuinely do mean it)
To get to my actual point. Whenever an ex-client recognize me or us, they will point at me, look me up and down inspecting me, and with an astonished look on their face declare, "I heard you were very ill".
It's rather funny really, they're judging me simply by the clothes I wear and that is so extraordinary. So I always respond by saying to them "it takes a lot of hard work to look like this.
"Please don't judge me by the clothes I wear".
It's a lesson to learn and is similar to "You can't judge a book by its cover".
(I have to keep that in mind also)
So please, don't judge anyone by the clothes they wear.
You may just be waaaay off target.
Regards,
weewillie.
We live just 10 minutes by car from where our business premises were situated before we closed 23 years ago, yet were' still recognized and fairly well known to this day.
Whenever I'm out and about, inevitably with my wife, I like to wear clean smart casual comfortable clothes for my own, and only for my own personal benefit, well, perhaps for my wife's benefit also. I discovered dressing in this manner gives me a boost while making me feel better about myself and brightens up my mind.... it genuinely does.
We don't know how this came about, however, any ex-client spotting us will invariably stop us for a chat, which is extremely kind. Now, we find the following extraordinary, humorous even, their initial reaction and words are inevitably the same, they'll look me up and down with an incredulous look while declaring "I\we, heard you were very ill". Somehow, obviously, they've gained knowledge of my health issues. I never quiz them, never replying with words similar to "how on earth did you know about that" or words of that nature, so we're still unaware how they discovered this to be the case.
I do know why that's their first reaction. They have visions of all elderly (we don't feel elderly. btw) folk with health issues, walking around with despondency oozing from their demeanor.
Some elderly folk will obviously have far more serious health problems than mine which they find incredibly hard to cope with, so we must never (my wife and I) scorn or looked down upon. I've simply or should I say, spectacularly been blessed to eventually have the frame of mind God has afforded. I'm very very humbled by that and always respect those who are not as fortunate as me. (there but for the Grace of God......)
I've to rely on a walking stick whenever I'm out walking. I use the ordinary common or garden stick with a curved handle, however, one day I spotted a rather nice quality black walking stick with comfortable chrome handle for sale......I bought it. Using it is not borne out of pride, it simply makes me feel so much better within myself, more relaxed, and doesn't have the effect of continually making me feel like an old fogey as the old wooden walking stick could do at times. As with many many many folks my age, we simply do not feel our age, if it did, it would surely alter the course of the mind
Now, this is important to me, I refuse to walk around bearing drooped shoulders, woe is me look about me. Doing so would make me feel like my dear departed parents who yearned sympathy for everything they did in life.
Looking for sympathy is a trait I just cannot get my head around. In fact, my parents would portray themselves as much older than they actually were. I'm aware that in post-war years, 50-60 year-olds would have been considered old, but my father claimed, and I quote "both your mother and I are on our way out" when they both were in their mid 40's
They're both gone now, and though I was scared stiff of my father, (as was my elder brother, that's another story to tell) I'm not attempting to trash or disrespect his or my mother's memory.
I'm unsure who will understand, "I dress for my own benefit and nobody else"..... I actually genuinely do mean it)
To get to my actual point. Whenever an ex-client recognize me or us, they will point at me, look me up and down inspecting me, and with an astonished look on their face declare, "I heard you were very ill".
It's rather funny really, they're judging me simply by the clothes I wear and that is so extraordinary. So I always respond by saying to them "it takes a lot of hard work to look like this.
"Please don't judge me by the clothes I wear".
It's a lesson to learn and is similar to "You can't judge a book by its cover".
(I have to keep that in mind also)
So please, don't judge anyone by the clothes they wear.
You may just be waaaay off target.
Regards,
weewillie.