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I think we all have them. Those pieces of clothing which have gone with us through the ages, that favorite t-shirt that is not black anymore but it’s comfortable as an old friend, that sweatshirt that is like your second skin at home (until the day it falls down to pieces!). They get to the washing machine er… seldom, and have a tendency to disappear when a mother or a girlfriend is near (but you’ll fight until the end).
My grey jogging short pants belong to that kind. Through the years and the events, no matter what happens, I know they are always waiting for me at the gates of Summer. In a way they are the summer.
But lately, a disaster afflicted me. The pant’s cord got broken. If you have ever done it, you’ll know that inserting a cord into a jogging pant is a very boring operation, so I’ve been having the task awaiting in my todo list for a while, using substitutes.
At last, the other day, I fixed my pants. And a funny thing happened: I did not give it any mind, it was like a granted pre-assumption to use an XXL, heavily overdimmensioned chord, that now hangs out of my pant in a Spaceballs210212 fashion.
And it feels so right, after the days of deprivation… The length is such that I can easily do two knots, even three if I wanted to. (For the sake of decency, I will save you the image of the pants).
This trivial event made me think about the human nature, the way it reacts to unfulfilled needs with a sort of overreaction to recover balance. Maybe it is something that comes as a side effect of our huge flexibility to face situations. Think about heavier deprivations, like those people who have suffered hunger for many years and then seem to be obsessed with food, or those who have been submitted to a repressive sexual regime and then become compulsive about sex, even in ways that make them very unhappy…
Funny how something as trivial as a worn out piece of cloth can remind you of something as sublime as empathy and compassion…
Remember that character from Snoopy who always carried a blanket? Which is your “blanket”? Do you know people whose ‘cords have been cut too short’ on some aspect? How do you relate to them? Do you recognize this problem in some personal area of yours?